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Full text of "Video Games Player - Vol 2 No 2 (1983-11)(Carnegie Publications)(US)"

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ATARI, 

COUCO, 

MAHEl 

EWS! i 

12)581-82 



nR GAMES 







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OCTOBER/ 




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7U86"02117' 




IT'S WRITTEN IN 
THE STARS! 



And In The 
Best Magazines 



■■■■!:9 




* •% 





Dealers: Demo disks are 
available! Give us a call. 



■*:_' 



4tn> 



What's that?. . . 
Why, the award-winning 
Russ Wetmore arcade games! 
Three shining examples of what 
Adventure International has to 
offer for your Atari*. 

To order, see yout local dealer. If he does not have the program, then 
call 1-SO0-3277172 (orders only please), or write tor our free catalog. 

Published by 

dventur^ 

INTERNATIONAL 

a subsidiary of Scott Adams, Inc. 
LONGWOOD.FL 32750 • (305)662-6917 




O-Utf OF THE TEAR % 



• AUVARD WINNER •! 




You don't have an Atari? 
Then check with your dealer 
- for the version you 
kolay on your system! 



a55I0i1.46 $34.95 
I $34.95 



BOX 3435 



SSKEfleCj. ^mm^ 



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PREPPIE! 




SEA DRAGON 




PREPPIE! II • 




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SITUATION DESPERATE POWERFUL NEW 
DEATH STAR REPORTED UNDER CONSTRUC- 
TION MUST BE DESTROYED BEFORE ITS 
DEADLY COMPLETION OR ALL WILL BE LOST 

MtSSIDN INVOLVES SPLIT-SECOND 
SKILL. MUST FLY MILLENNIUM FALCON 
THROUGH ENEMY FORCE FIELD PENE- 
TRATE DEATH STAR DEFENSES, AND 
NEUTRALIZE CENTER CORE. 




WARNING! EXPECT HEAVY RESISTANCE 
FROM EMPIRE'S TIE INTERCEPTORS. 
ALSO NOTE., BE ON ALERT FOR TRACK- 
ING DEATH RAY 

TIME RUNNING OUT Aa REBEL 
PILOTS REPORT IMMEDIATELY FOR 
RETURN OF THEJEDI DEATH STAR 
BAULE THE THRILLING HOME \^DEO 
GAME FROM Ri\RKER BROTHERS, 



For the Atari 2600 " and soon available tor Inteilivlsion.' 

R4RKER BROTHERS 

* ® * TM 4 ^t;. LucasMm Lid (LFL) 19S3 All rigms reset ved Parker Bras , a div olCPG Products Corp , Authorized User Atan26CX)"isa tiademarkot Alan, inc 
INTELLIVISION" IS 3 'egislered tradema'K o1 Mattel, Inc. Parker Bioltiers is not aHilialed wdh Alan, Inc o' Mallei, Inc 



VOLUME 2 NUMBER 2 




NEW PRODUaS 



5 



THE VIDEO GAMES 
GAZEHE 



^ 



MATTEL 
STRIKES BACK 

With Aquarius and Intellivision IV, 
number two is trying harder 



WHAT'S IN STORE FOR 
YOU? 



^ 



THE ViDEO 
GAME PIMTES 

By Michael Blanchet 

That arcade game you are playing 
may be an illegal ripoff 



WIN AN 

ACTIVISION 

LIBRARY! 

Enter our Name That Alien contest 



25 



SWAP SHOP 

li-ade or sell your used games 



INTERVIEW: 

ALEX LEAVENS 

ByDanGutman 

Alex designed Gorf, Stargunner, 
and Crazy Climber for the VCS 



35 



THE HOTLINE 

Call (212) 581-8267 for the latest 
dirt 

CLUES 



37 



CAN YOU SURVIVE? 

By Michael Blanchet 

We put you in a tricky situation 



COVER ILLUSTRATION BY LOU BROOKS 




Publisher 

CHARLES GOODMAN 




?^ 


miRDWWE 


Senior Vice President 
Finance & Administrolion 

NORMAN J. FINEGOLD 

Editor 

DAN GUTMAN 




REVIEWS 




JO 

BEAT IT! 

ByBobGuerra 

We show you how to rip apart Ms. 
Pac-Man, Sinistar, aMGalaga 

42 


5/ 

VIDEO GAME BUYER'S 
GUIDE 

By Roymond Dimetrosky 


Managing Editor 

SHAY ADDAMS 

Art and Design 

SCOTT-GOODMAN DESIGN 

Contributing Editors 

MICHAEL BLANCHET, 
RAYMOND DIMETROSKY, MARTIN 
BASS, MARK BROWNSTEIN, 
ROBERT GUERRA 

Director of Manuf octuring 

JANICE KRELL-COHN 




HOW TO PLAY 


DO 


Production Manager 

JOYCE FAUST 


t 


fOREV€R 

By Leo Daniels 

Score over 2,000,000 in Joustl 
Ram 40 free Tbmpest games! 


ONE ON ONE 

By Michael Blanchet 
Zaxxonvs. Zaxxon, Pitfall vs. 
Dracula 

58 


Production Assistant 

ROBERT DOYLE 

Circulation Director 

ROBERT T.MAIELLO 

Newsstond Soles Manager 

MARlLi'N MENDELSOHN 

Advertising Director 

JOHN DAMBORAGIAN 


1 - 


READER GAME OF THE 


SOUND iN 


Account Executive 

LAURA LAPATIN 




MONTH 

Shawn Lysowski's "The Young 
Adventurer" 

4? 


VIDEO GAMES 

ByJoshMortIn 

How do they make it? How 
important is it? 


Office Monager 

ROSEMARIE LENNON 

Controller 

ROBERT H.SCHWARTZ 

Accounting Manager 

AMY ROSARIO 




ARE YOU 


62 


Administrotive Assistants 

BILLATW(H)D, DE'ANNA 
THOMAS, DONNA PELZMAN 




AWESOME? 

How your scores compare with 
everybody else's 


COMPUTER GAME 
BUYER'S GUIDE 

By Shay Addams and Martin Boss 


Vidao Gomsi Playar. Vol 2 No. 2. October/Novam- 
b«r 1983 Video Gairsi Player is publl»^«d 6 times o 
yaof by Carnegie Publkolioni Corp., 888 Saver)!*! 
Avenue, New York. Ne* York 10106 No molerial 
may be reprinted wllhoul written permisiion oF th« 
pubiiiher. Entire tonlanti © copyright W83 by Carne- 
gie Publicoiions Corp. All rights reterved. Printed in 
thi U.S.A, 



i£ITEllS TO THE EDITOR 



PLUG IT IN 

I'm considering buying either 
an Atari VCS, an Atari 5200, a 
ColecoVision or an [ntellivision 
II. But all this talk about things 
you plug into this and things 
you plug into that is driving me 
crazy. Now I have no idea what 
to buy Can you clear it all up? 

Randolph Trotln 

Okay, here's the scoop. Right 
now there are adapters that 
allow you to play Atari VCS 
cartridges on ColecoVision. 
Intellivision II and the Atari 
5200. You can also plug a Star- 
path Supercharger (it expands 
the memory) into any of these 
adapters. There are no adapters 
(yet) to plug ColecoVision 
carts. 1 ntellivision carts or 
Atari 5200 carts into any other 
machines than the ones they 
were made for Ail four systems 
can or shortly will be expanda- 
ble into computeis if you pur- 
chase their keyboard add-ons. 
ColecoVision also has a "Super 
Game" module to increase tiie 
memory of that system, and if 
you really want to be driven 
cra2y, try the Tlirbo expansion 
module for ColecoVision. All 
accessories are purchased sepa- 
rately from the systems. 

OUT OF BUSINESS 

I understand that Data Age, 
U.S. Games and Apollo have all 
stopped making video games. 
Why? Are any of their games 
still for sale? Will they become 
collector's items? 

Robert Hanover 

A few years ago, when it was 
Just Atari and Mattel, we would 
buy every game that came out. 
Now, witJi so many companies 
making video games, we have to 
be more choosy, lb succeed with 
such competition, a company 
has to not only have great 
games, but also have great dis- 



tribution, advertising and pro- 
motion. This is an example of 
"sun-'ival of the fittest." Apollo 
went under nearly a year ago. 
and we stiil see some of their 
games in the stores, usually at a 
good discount. Most likely, 
games from companies that 
went out of business wiil some- 
day be worth far more than 20 
or SO dollars. 



INTEIUVISION III? 

Thank you for your balanced 
evaluation of the Atari 5200 
versus ColecoVision. But 1 have 
heard that Intellivision III will 
be here by the end of the year. 
Should 1 wait and buy that 
instead of Atari or Coleco's 
"super system"? 

Heather Harbison 

Mattel has been dropping hints 
about Intellivision HI (See 
"Mattel Strikes Back" in this 
is.$ue). but until we get a unit in 
our hands we can 't tell you if it 
is an improvement on Atari or 
Coleco. You can bet we'll let 
you know as soon as we can. 

MOVIE/GAMES 

Why do you and all the other 
magazines run articles on the 
"movie/video games"? With 



the exception of The Empire 
Strikes Back, every video game 
based on a movie has been incre- 
dibly terrible! 

Rex Wallace 

You're right. We admit it. We 
won 't do it again. Promise. But 
first, we want to see how 
Porky's— The Game turns out. 



MORE REVIEWS 

Your Fall 1982 Hume Video 
Game Buyer's Guide is just 
what the doctor ordered. With 
.so many systems and cartridges 
on the market, it is absolutely 
necessary for the player to be a.s 
informed as he or she can be. I 
would like to see you keep this 
rating system in every issue and 
expand it to include Parker 
Brothers, U.S. Games, Spec- 
travision and all the other com- 
panies. Keep up the good work. 
7b/ii liobbins 

Here's what we're planning. 
While all the other video game 
magazines review 10-15 games 
per issue, we plan to review 30- 
40. We do this by evaluatingjust 
a few games in depth and giving 
brief reviews of all the others. 
We think it 's more important to 
tell you about all the games that 
are out there than it is to devote 




tHiayhe Data Age should have made a Wayne Newton Escape game. 



a lot of space to a select few 
games. 

SUGGESTION BOX 

I have a suggestion for the video 
games companies— make your 
cartridge boxes smaller. A 
cartridge the size of a pack of 
cigarettes does not need a box 
the size of a paperback book. 
It's a waste of paper, it takes up 
too much space on store 
shelves, and I'll bet that I'm 
paying more money for it. 

Julius Riccio 

Good idea. Floppy disk com- 
puter games pac-ked in big boxes 
are even more ridiculous. 



OUT OF MY HEAD 

\ n order for you to print a game I 
made up, do 1 have to send a 
computer printout or something 
like that? 1 don't know anything 
abimt programming, 1 just like 
to make games up out of my 
head. 

Justin Hoy 

No programming skills are nee- 
es.'iary Just send us a dra wing of 
your game, a photo of yourself, 
and a description of the game. 



FEW DEMANDS 

Do you know what the best part 
ofyour magazine is? "What's In 
Store For You" That's all I want 
—a list of all the companies and 
what product^s are coming out 
for what systems. Thanks. 

Marvin Tabak 
P.S. The nerd poster was good 
too. 

Got a question? Got a gripe? 
Just want a half a million peo- 
ple to see your name in print? 
Punch your initials in here, pal. 
and write: Letters to the Editor, 
Video Games Player. 888 7th 
Ave., New York, NY 10106. 



6 VIDEO 'JAMES I'LAi'EK 



Li . 1 N i l li t i -M4 

Thumb Action Is Done... 



The Trigger Era 
Has Begun! f^^^ 






it: 



'4 



\'- 



\! 



i \ f 



Triga-EHte — The ultimate video game 
weapon. The finest controller features 
available. The full 5 year guarantee is only 
the beginning. 

- 8 position sensitivity setting for handle 

pivot response. From almost a 0" to 10' 

response range. 
' Built in rapid fire bar with instantaneous, 

activation. 

Independent second action lire button 

tor the latest games. 

• Fully adjustable trigger sensitivity. 

• Patent pending design. 

• Removable dual sided suction cups. 
Full 5 year no-nonsense guarantee!) 



v^-'--.:a 



% « 



f-i 



4-4 



^t-W4 



i4 



\ 



r ~ Air 



NEW! ATAHi 52i)C JOYSTICK iNTERFACi 
Allows 5200 owners to use any 9 pin joysticks on 
the Supersystem. 
Greatly improves scores and response time. 



;k 



TT 



Triga- Command, the original trigger 
activated joystick that brought total 
conlrol and comfort to video game playing. 

Helicopter style control handle. 

Index finger trigger action. 

Removable dual sided suction cups. 

•> Diamond cut textured grip. 

30 day factory money back guarantee. 



Xa li TM^^^ t J . ■ Ml ■ ■ J 

^n I nga loysTKtn 



t 



ColecoVision, Coleco-Gemini, 
Atari 2600 and Atari Computers, 
Commodore Computers, Sears 
Telegames. and others. 

All Above Listings Are Trademarks of 
Their Respective Companies 



i i I I i 



a 



MW 



Qectra Concec 



X 



1125 WllBuPftace, Bohemis N.Y. 11^16 

I 



I 



ft'V 



Woild's Largest Selection of 
Commercial and Home Wdeo Games 

and Accessories. 



J 



WE HAVE EVERY CARTRIDGE AT ACCESSORY 

FOR ATARI' VIDEO COMPUTER SYSTEM™ 400-/800T 

5200~ IPfTELLIVISION"; COLECOVISION"' * VECTREX"* 





vX^^"^ 



Send $2.00 for our latest CaUlog Se 

newsletter telling about all the new 

and exciting products shown at the 

January '85 Consumer Electronics Show! 

Please specify if you have an 

Atari 400/800 unit, and we will 

send you our Atari 400/800 Catalog. 




ACCESSORIES FOR MATTEL" 
INTELLIVISION- UNIT 

(Hoi for use with lritellivision~ II or III) 

Joystick 14.95/sett 

Precision machined from aluminum 
(gold anodized) for the most discrimi- 
nating player, includes 2 replacement 
disKs with screw-in straight sticK and 
ball handles. 

OlsUck" lO.OO/palrt 

Replacement joysticks for Intellivision'" 
made Irom hi-lmpacE plastic. 

Intellivision'- Dust Cover 7.95^ 

Heavy vinyt with logo. 



ALL MAIL ORDER COMPATIIES 
ARE MOT THE SAMEI 

1 We\e been in tmyiiiess foi over 10 years. 

2 We operate 4 stores .is well .is our mall order 
busit'css. 

3. Wt'ilDCkovtrr $1,000,000 in inventory, 

4 . We ship over 90% ol our orders within 
48 (luiirs. 

5. We Have the most sophisticated computer 
sysleni in the Industry. 

6. We have nationwide loll free 800 lines to take 
your orders (Visa or MaslerCardl. 

7 We wHi ship any way you prefer. 

a. We will immediately replace initial defects. 

C3liri:iti<la'esiiJcnis.4dd 6 1/2% sales lax 
"Add SI packing, handling jnd shipping tlvitge 
■ *dd il p3(.Wng, (undllng ami shiipiii'ifi f hjifii- 
-Add S.^ p^Khliig h'lndllnii^nd <ihlpt'iiiy i tiiU'i*- 



ACCESSORIES FOR ATARI' 
ee ATARI* 400-/800- 

Gj\.n.E.Sr Super Joystick 29.95^ 

Finest quality, 5-year mfrs. warranty, 
Joystick extension Cord (6 ft.) 4.95' 

6-wire cable. (12 ft.) 6.95* 

Joystick "Y" Adapter 6.95* 

Allows joystick 6f paddles to remain 
connected, saving wear and tear on 
connector pins. 
Joystick Lefty Adapter 5.95- 

Allows Atari* joystick to be turned 90° for 
left handed persons. 

Supercharger" by Starpatli'" 39.95^ 

Regularly 69.95. With Phaser Patrol- 
Tape (increase memory of Atari' VCS). 

Emerson"' AC/DC 

Cassette Recorder 24.95t 

Regularly 49.95. 
Atari" Dust Covers 7.95 + 

For 2600. 400. 800 8f 5200 models. 
All heavy vinyl with logo. 



ACCESSOKieS FOR 
COLECOVISIOM™ 

SuperjoystIck'" with 

2 rirc Buttons 29.95^ 

This is the same quality joystick weVe 

been selling for Atari? 5 year mfrS. 

waiTaiity 
Elall Handle (EZ Joystick) 10.00/pr.t 

For Colecor 
Joystick "Y" Adapter 10.00/e«.t 

Allows use of Q.A.M.E.S.~ superjoystick 

with standard Coieco*" controller. 

9'Wire cable. 
Controller Extension Cord 

9-wire cable. (9 ft.) lO.OOt 

Colecovlsion"' Dust Cover 7.95t 

heavy vinyl witli icitjo. 

Visa and MasterCard holders may call 

to place orders: 1-800-626-959^2. 

no C.O.D. ORDERS. 

(Dealer inquiries welcome.) 



G*A.fll.C«S. 



Direct all mail order Bt catalog requests to Van nuys. 



San Fernando Valley; Orange County: South Hay: 



Thouaand Oaka: 



6626 VJljosii Avenue 
Van riuys, CA 91406 
(21 5t 781 1300 



10529 tills .^venue 28 r4 W. Sepulvedd 3M9 ThouMnd Oski Blvd 
rounlaln Valley, CA Torrance. CA Thouiand Oaks Ca 

(7141964-2711 (21.11 530-790.'. 1805] -jgyeuS 

(213)^1-1151 

ror information call: 1-213-781-1300 

tMon. -Fri. 9-6 FST / 5at. 9-5 PST) 



FIRST 



WAVE 



HOT GOSSIP 



What do Roger Moore, Bruce 
Jenner, George Plimpton, Alan 
Alda, and Santa Glaus have in 
common? They all rep vidgame 
companies- Spectra video, 
Activision, Mattel. Atari, and 
Starpath respectively. Report- 
edly, Fox asked Alda to rep their 
MASH game, but he Insisted it be 
nonviolent. So Fox signed Jamie 
Farr and Alda pockets a 
rumored 10 million for five 
years, Wait tilJ nonviolent Alan 
gets a load of Battlezone , . . 
Wico's new slogan— "My Sticko 
Wo7i'l Go Wacko Because It's A 
Wico!' Give us a break! . . . Since 
Data Age went under, what hap- 
pens to their Mr. Bill game? Uni- 
versal has purchased the rights 
and will be making it into an 
arcade game.,. Donkey Kong, 
Donkey Kong Jr. and Mario 
Bros, were all designed by the 
same gay at Nintendo and 
they're rumored to be making 
the latter Into a home game by 
themselves . . . The long awaited 
Odyssey Three has been 
scrapped. But they will come out 
with some new system next year 
. . . Parker has licensed Gyrus 
for a home game... Remember 
that great Coleco Super Game 
module that was to play 100 
screens of Donkey Kong? It 
seems to have disappeared in the 
excitement over their Adam 
Computer. . .Atari is to replace 
the 5200 joystick with a con- 
ventional self-centering one... 
Fox supposedly commissioned 
three different companies to 
design them a MASH game, then 
they picked the one ihey liked 
best... Three of Sega's game 
designers have left to go to 
Atari, which is being sued by 
Mattel for stealing three of their 
designers in order to get games 
for InteUivision out by Christ- 
mas... What will Coleco's Tkr- 
zan do that Jungle Hunt and 
Pitfall haven't already done? . . . 
Why did Roger Moore sign with 
Spectravideo If Parker has the 
James Bond game? . . . Inciden- 
tally, now It will be Plimpton 




After the success of Pitfall and Jungle Hunt, can Coleco 
fop if with Tarzan? (top) Above, Dragon's Loir, ft's worth 
50 cents, 



versus Alda on TV commercials 
and Alda played Plimpton In the 
movie Paper Lion! .. Star- 
path's Steve "Commie Mu- 
tants" Landrum has designed a 
terrific new version of Frogger 
for the Supercharger. . . The Uni- 
tronics Expander won't turn 
your VCS Into a computer after 
all— they scrapped It in favor of 
their new Sonic computer... 



Pioneer has found a way to hnk 
computers and laserdiscs,,, 
Starpath's Rabbit Transit was 
originally called Hopalong 
Catastrophe. . .First Star 
Software has made a deal with 
Marvel to make games based on 
Marvel characters. First Star has 
also sold their successful Astro 
Chase Atari 4lX) game to Parker, 
who will be coming out with a 



VCS version . . . There Is no truth 
to the rumor that Lech Walesa 
will be the spokesman for 
Atari's Pole Position home 
game . . . Hot rumor of the month 
—Activision will buy Sirius 
Software... David "Pitfall" 
Crane taught his protoge Steve 
Cartright how to program the 
Atari VCS in two days. Cartright 
says all those weird objects in 
Megamania were named after 
the game was programmed, He 
also says his wife hated the eariy 
forms of Plaque Attack, so he 
improved it... Prolific David 
Lubar designed Nexar (Spec- 
travision), Cineman (Sirius), 
Worm War I, Fantastic Voyage, 
Flash Gordon and Spacemaster 
X7 (Fox) , . . Soon you will be able 
to buy "The Unroller Control- 
ler," the first trackball that 
doesn't roll. This is not a joke! . , , 
Dragon's Lair will be remem- 
bered as the game that changed 
the history of video games... 
Zimag pulled out of the game 
business even before their first 
game was released . . . Remember 
the arcade classics Gun Fight, 
Seawolf n, Spectar, and Fire 
One? Epyx will be coming out 
with computer game versions. 
They also have a new driving 
game, Pitstop, in which you 
have to puli off the road and 
change your tires... In the final 
days of Apollo, their creditors 
were watching the company 
with surveillance equipment so 
that none of the employees 
would steal anything... The 
Pink Panther is coming from 
Odyssey, not Parker as we 
reported in the last issue , , . and 
that "Scramble-type" game for 
the Commodore 64-it's called 
Ozie Ozone... Rock star Ttodd 
Rundgren is negotiating with 
CBS to produce a series of 
"entertainment software pro- 
grams." Ibdd penned Paintbox, 
one of the earliest Apple 
graphics programs... K-Tel to 
come out with VCS carts with 
one game on each side , , . That's 
it, guys. Use it or lose It. 



NEW PRODUCTS 




RAPID FIRE 
MODULE 

How'd you like to punch off 
20 shots a second? The 
acUustable speed "Bla.ster" will 
help you annihilate aliens with 
a continuous beam of 
devastation. It plugs in 
between the same console and 
the joystick and will not harm 
your Atari Vt'S, 400/HOO, 
ColecoVi,sionorVIC-20. The 
Blaster is particularly useful 
when you're playing against 
someone who is better than 
you. Just find a way to hide the 
wires. $12.95 from Questar, 
670 N. W. Pennsylvania Ave. . 
Citebalis, WA 08532. 



CONTROLLER BASE 

An obelisk is "a four sided 
stone pillar." Webster's doesn't 
say anything about playing 
Grunds In Space on one. But 
The Obelisk, made of 
hardwood and f<frmica, has a 
built-in, eight-position Wico 
joystick so you can play all 
your favorite games in your 



comfy chair. A 12 foot 
extension cable is included and 
rapid fire button is optional. 
The Obelisk costs $89.95 and 
will interface with Atari VCS, 
CoiecuVisiun, 400/800/1200. 
and Commodore computers. A 
two-player version is availabje. 
J.D. Home Associates, filH 
West (Mffin Dr., Bozeman. MT 
59715. 





COMPUTER TOUCH TABLET 



As ''friendly" a.s computers 
are these days, they still have 
these keyboards that you've 
got to type on. What a drag. 
The Koalapad Ttmch Tablet lets 
you draw directly on the 
screen. bypa.ssing the 
keyboard. This handheld 
peripheral is connected to your 
Apple, Atari, (Commodore or 



IBM computer by a cable and 
can be used for playing games, 
drawing pictures and for 
business applications. The 
Koalapad and Micro Illustrator 
Island (iraphics software 
package runs for less than 
$125. Koala Technologies. 4962 
El Camino Real. Ste. 125, Los 
Altos, CA 94022. 




TELEDELIVERY OF GAMES 



Stamp out cartridges! Now 
you can hook your Atari- 
compatible game system up to 
y{mr telephone and let Ma Bell 
send the games over. After you 
buy CVC's "Master Module" 
for $50, you can choose from 
dozens of games they have 
licensed and pay only for the 
time you play. For the average 
player, it will coal SI to play 
about an hour and this charge 



will be added to your credit 
card bill. The Ma.ster Module 
can load an 8K game in 40 
seconds. Game previews and 
contests will also be offered, as 
well as a sportsline, stockline, 
andmailline. "Teledelivery" 
may just revolutionize video 
games. Control Video 
Corporation, 8620 

Westwood Center Drive, 

Vienna, VA 22180. 



!0 VIDEO GAMISPLM'EH 



\ 


«0 


•a 


X 


1 ''10 <iAMI GlOv' 


® i 



VIDEO GAME GIOKE 



Do you sweat, a liit? Well, in 
addition to a Rood antiper- 
spirant, you iniKht tiy putting 
on a video game glove. Nanoy 
and Company's "Videomax" 
glove not only keeps your hand 
from slipping on the joystick, it. 



also gives your opponent the 
finger. It comes in white, navy, 
small, medium, large and even 
left or right. Send $8.40 to: 
Nancy and Company, 22594 
Mission Blvd., Suite 302, 
HaywHi'd, CA 94541. 




VIDEO 
GAME-READY TV 

The worst part of video 
gaming is having to mess 
around behind the TV set to 
plug the game in. Now Sony 
has a new 13-inch TV, their 
model KV-mi, that has a jack 
right up front for a video game, 
computer or video cassette 



recorder. The set also has 
fewer components than most 
sets, resulting in higher 
reliability and lower cost— 
$;i99.95. Sliding volume 
control, pushbutton tuning and 
Auto Color included. Sony, 
Sony Drive, Park Ridge, NJ 
07656. 




EXTRA-SMALL 
JOYSTICK 

Ymi may think a one-and-a- 
half inch joystick is made for 
little kids, but Amiga says their 
"Power-Stick" will improve 
every/'oc(v's scores. The 
shorter stick, it is claimed, 
gives faster, more direct 
control of screen objects and 
will withstand the rigors of 
rough play better than a big 
stick. The Pnwer-Stick has 
been ergonomically designed 
(designed by ergs) to give true 
eight-way response. Carrying 



case and extra-long cord 
included. $9.95. Amiga. 3350 
Scott Blvd. Santa Clarn, CA 
950,51. 




EXERCYCLE CONTROLLER 



Now we've seen everything. 
For just $39,95, you can hook 
your exercycle up to your video 
game and play while you pedal. 
The Aerobic Joystick simply 
clips onto the bike and your 
pedaling acts as a fire button. 
In Defender, for instance, the 



faster you pedal, the faster you 
fire. In Enduro or Grand 
Prix, the fa.ster you pedal, the 
faster your car goes. It 's 
outrageous! 

Suncomlnc, 650 Anthony 
TYail, Unit E, Northbrook, IL 
60062. 




VogotstQ 
copfure Oliws 
heortS-Ore/se. 



You thinks 

> it's all fun and 
^ games bein the 
^ woild's most 
famousk sailor? 
Then, I su^ests 
you tries it yerself. 
You try makin points 
with Ohve Oyl, that fickle, 
damanding, stringbean of a 
dame. Likes you got nothin 
better to do than runnin 
around tiyin to catch her 
hearts^ Jh^ and notes. __ 






You tiy bein chased around by Sea Hag. 
that fat swab Brutusk, without She ain't no 
a chance to catch yer breath. lady, that's ^' 

fer sure. 

And you try fightin off the 
vultures whilst Ohve screams 
forH-E-LR 

And you try to keep from 
gettin yerself killed by them 
bouncin skulls. I doesn't 
know where they comes from, 

A J I'll ^n i-u xu- ui vu but I doesn't hke 'em one bit 
And 1 11 tells ya, that big blubber ,^ ^^ ^^^g^ 

ballain'tasdumbashelooks. ■.f'J^ ..^^ISC ofaH whilst 



As soon OS ya gets yer spinach, they ail runs away 



You tiy doin all that whilst \ 
yer gettin pelted with beer 
bottles by that discustipatin 




\ you're doing 
, \ all this, 

':^ Ya gotstQ punch (Hit fhe^ 
botiies before they punch you 
Qutdhqiestheyrenon-returr}}. 



1<JS3 Pirker Braiders, Bei/erly. MA 0l9l5 t i98J Kjng Features Sjiidicaie. Inc Pnpeyei6<ire£i5leredlrademaiko[ iiidib licensed by King FeiiluresSyiidicjie, Inc c |<)8J Niniendoof Amenca. Inc. 



VA CANT BE WIMPY 
IFYAWANTSIA 



PUnrPOPEYE. 




O: 



\y 



01 



Olm drops notes whilst 

you runs around tryin 

to moke points 



» they keeps movin the 
spinach around so's you can 
never find it when you needs 
it. Blow me down, it ain't 
hardly fair. 

m tell ya, ya gotsta be some 
Idnda sailor to play Popeye. " 

You gotsta be fast. And ya 
gotsta uirive under pressure. 

Cuz, me home video game 
is just like the hit arcade 
game by Nintendo . . . 
With thiree screens of 




\b thinks I fsk fun 

fonglin with Brutusk? 

You try It 



non-stop action and in- Just one piece of advice, 
credulous graphics. I doesn't suggest ya tries it 

So's if it's a challenge yer if ya eats yer spinach in a 
lookin for, and ya thinks quiche. 

ya gots what it takes, why be 

messin around with them 

other silly games. Do what I 

does eveiy day. Play Popeye 

from Parker Brothers. 



Screen 3 is the 

most dangeroask 

ofthmoll. 





Here, t/oidle. Ill 
blostlmteya. 




B4RKER 
BROTHERS 




Popeye is available for Atari 2600, Intelliipision, Atari 52O0 and ColecoVision Systems; 
Plus Atari 400 and 800 and Commodore VIC 20 home computer systems. 



CREATIVE SOFTWARE 

- the * 1 * independent VIC-20 full-line software 

publisher in the U.S. - is proud to announce 

4 new Gome Cartridges & 5 Home Applicotions 

for the COMMODORE 64: 



A GAME ON CARTMO&E FOft THE COMMODOU M' 




. Joysridi controll*r rvqulrvd. 






/ISTROBUTZ 



A GAME OH CAATWOGE FOK THE COMMODORE 64~ 




. Joyitkk contToIlM r*qulr*d. 



Mumn 
A GAME OH CAKTNCKaE FOR THE COIHMO[>ORE M' 

wsAiL mm itii^ 




Jor*tMi eontToll*r r*qulr«d. 



PMSBOI^ 



A <aAME OH CARTRJDQE FOR THE COMMODORE 64" 




JoysMdi CDn(roll«f r*qulr«d. 



THIS GAME IS ALSO AVAIIABL£ FOR THE VlC-fiO. THIS GAME IS ALSO AVAILAfll£ FOR THE VlC-20. 





CREATIVE 
SOFTWAI^E 

A Division otASCi Inc 

230 East Caribbean Drive 
Sunnyvale, CA 94086 



*Bas€d on survey of distributors and retailers. 

Copyright 1983 by Creative Softv>/are. All nghts reserved 

■VIC-20," "COMMODORE" and "COMMODORE 64" 
ere trademarta of COMMODORE ELEaRONICS, LFD. 



These Home Appli- 
cation Programs 
arc also available 
for the VIC-20. 



.The 



Video Game Gazette 



ALL THE NEWS THAT'S FIT TO PLAY 



EXCLUSIVE 



DOCTOR SnrSMOrPLAYING 
VIDGAMES Win KILLYQU! 



SHEBOYGAN UNIVERSITY— The medical 
world was rocked last week when Dr. Nor- 
man Goldchain presented his controver- 
sial new theory— that NOT playing video games 
can be hazardous to your health. "Hitler never 
played videogames," Or. Goldchain said, "Neither 
did Attila the Hun. And look what happened to 
them! TUke any murderer, criminal or rapist in 
history and you'll find one thing they all had in 



(■ o m m o n — I h f y never 
played video ^ames. This 
is proof that NOT playing 
video games is bad for 
you." 

Dr. Goldchain went on 
to discuss the complete 
lack of video gaming in 
the lives of Lee Harvey 
Oswald and Charles Man- 
son, and the observation 
that he has never run into 
any PLO terrorists while 
waiting in line at Pizza 




Time Theater. 

When his findings were 
questioned by skeptical 
reporters, Dr. Goldchain 
provided graphic exam- 
ples from his research; 
"Twelve-year-old Timmy 
Waters of Oak Falls, Ohio, 
who was run down and 
squashed flat by a mail DR. NORMAN GOLDCHAIN doing research. 
truck while he was walk- 
ing to school last May, 
might be alive today if 
he'd only played Frogger 



often enough to have 
sharpened his street- 
crossing skills and 



IHEY NEVER PLAYED VIDEO GAMES 




MANSON: Doing life in prison 
br mass murder. 



HITLER: Dictator ond ruthless killer. 



AMIN: He could have been playing 
frogger. 



reflexes. Then there's the 
tragic case of seventeen- 
year-old Wally Fishbein, 
who fell off a ladder while 
painting his parents' 
house in Santa Monica, 
California, and broke his 
neck. Had Wally played 
Donkey Kong just twice a 
day for a mere two weeks, 
he would have certainly 
mastered the knack of 
nimble ladder-climbing 
and avoided such an 
untimely death." 

Dr. Goldchain is pres- 
ently under observation 
in Bellevue Hospital in 
New York, 



IS 



The Video Game Gazette 



IS THIS MAN A NUT CASE? 




MICHIGAN -Used to be when you called 
someone an "environmentalistrit meant they 
were into trees, fresh air and trashing James 
Watt. That is, until John Sassak invented the 
Saker-One, a space game with "wrap-around 
reality" for the pilot of this saucer that's 
already flj^g high in a Michigan bar. 



The ship bobs up and down on a 140 mph 
column of air. Built-in lasers blast enemy 
ships displayed on TV screens— all for two 
bucks! A coin-op version should be out by 
June, and other designers are developing 
environmental games that wtII even accom- 
modate multiple players. 



ADAM BORN,SUPER MODULE DIES 

The much-heralded Coleco Super 
Game Module is dead. Instead, Coleco is 
releasing their Adam computer, one of 
which we will be giving away in the 
next issue. But what about those Super 
Games we heard about that had so much 
more game play than the regular Coleco 
games? They can all be played on 
Adam . . . 
Tiirbo: Now you drive to the .suburbs 
Zaxxon: Two new asteroids 
Gorf: Two new screens 
Donkey Kong: Five screens, new 
enemies, intermissions 
Smurf: Now he fights snakes 




16 VlDEXiGAMtS PLAYER 



The Video Game Gazette 



CARTS CAN BE 
REPROGRAMiMED! 

Even the best games 
get boring, so Romox 
is marketing a car- 
tridge that can be 
reprogrammed with 
the new game of your 
choice. This is possible 
only with their patent- 
pending "ECPC** (Edge 
Connector Program- 
mable Cartridge). Reg- 
ular games use ROM 
cartridges that can*t 
be reprogrammed. 

All youTl have to do 
will be to visit the local 
shop, trade your old 
Romox cartridge for a 
blank one and pop the 
cart into one of nine 
slots on the Romox ter- 
minal. In less than a 
minute, you've got a 
new game, for only 
$10. In addition to 
lower prices, Romox 




WILLITNEVEREND? 



will be electronically 
transmitting new 
games to the 1300 "Pro- 
gramming Terminals" 
around the country, so 
you won't have to wait 
months for new games. 
Games for Atari 
VCS and all Atari com- 
puters. Commodore's 
64 and VIC-20, and the 
TI 99/4A will be avail- 




WAHGAMES OR MORE GAMES? 



SEATTLE-"Nuke Salvador!" 
these fiflh-graders inputted 
after thinking they'd tapped 
into a Pentagon computer ala 
Wargames. Fortunately their 
commands didn't get past the 
Apple computer that the Paci- 
fic Science Center has pro- 
vided for students to try out. 



The Center maintains 15 
computers for this purpose, 
and says student response has 
been overwhelmingly posi- 
tive. And though Brian and 
Greg here didn't get to vapor- 
ize Central America, they did 
get their first lesson in com- 
puter literacy 



able in September. 
Plans are being made 
to provide cartridges 
for Mattel, Oddysey 
and other formats 
upon agreements with 
game publishers. 
Romox anticipates 
each terminal to even- 
tually offer 500 games. 



GAMES 

INEVERY 

FORMAT 

The day is rapidly 
approaching when we won't 
have to say, "I want to buy 
that game, but it doesn't fit 
my system." In recent 
months game manufacturers 
iiave been releasing games in 
multiple formats. For exam- 
ple. Fox's Porky 's game is 
available for VCS, ColecoVi- 
sion,VlC-20, Atari 400/800, 
and Texas Instruments. In 
addition, hardware manu- 
facturers are putting out 
games for their competitors' 
machines. Mattel has its M 
Network, Odyssey is now 
making games for ColecoVi- 
slon and Atari fi200, and 
even Atari has consented to 
make hits like Pac-Man for 
Apple, Commodore 64, VIC- 
20, IBM, TRS-RO, and Texas 
Instruments. 

V 



OHNOOOO! 

HERE COMES 
SLUGGO ATARI 

TO Dm US 
OUT OF BUSINESS! 




iKt)BUVl»«0" 





Here comes Aquarius II, 
and Intellivision IV! 






/' 



ent Computer System . . . 



It was a lot simpler last year. If you wanted a video game system, you either got an Atari 
VCS or Matters Intellivision. The VCS had more hit games and cost $140. Intellivision was 
running about S210 at the time, but it had better graphics. Odyssey- and Astrocade were a 
distant third and fourth. 

Then along came ColecoVision and the Atari 5200, which both had improved graphics, 
bigger memory, better game play and licensed titles like Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Defender 
and Zaxxon. Mattel, which used to be number two, was left in the dust. The question was— 



SUPERGRAPHICS 

¥hHd Series Baseball 







The Jetsons: Ways WHh Wards 




would they roll over and die . . . or would 
they stand up and fight back? 

Inteliivision II 

Intellivision II is not much different 
from Intellivision, but it wa^in't meant to 
be. It is a slimmed-down, higher-tech 
looking unit that serves one main purpose 
—to bring down the price of the Mattel 
game system. Intellivision II has been 
selling for as low as $99, with the choice 
of getting as a rebate either an Intelli- 



voice unit and a $5 discount on any game, 
or a $50 rebate with the purchase of two 
games. Either way, the actual cost of the 
system, including rebates, is somewhere 
between $20 and $60, even lower than 
the Atari VCS. 

There are a few improvements on the 
original Intellivision. A red LCD light is 
provided so it isn't so easy to leave the 
unit on overnight accidentally. The cords 
are longer and detachable, so you don't 
have to send the whole system away to 



get the controller fixed. And detachable 
controllers open up the possibility of 
other companies making "deluxe" con- 
trollers. Fortunately, Mattel made all the 
game cartridges for Intellivision and 
Intellivision U compatible. 

Most importantly, Intellivision II 
owners have the option of purchasing the 
System Changer, a device like the Coleco 
Expansion Module #1, which allows you 
to play Atari VCS cartridges. For the first 
time. Atari games and Intellivision games 
can be played on the same system. 

M Network 

When every company in the world was 
starting up last year to make games for 
the Atari VCS, Mattel jumped in, too. A 
lot of those companies are gone now, but 
Mattel has expanded M Network this 
year. Now they are making computer 
games. The first three games, compatible 
with the Apple and IBM computers, will 
be Night Stalker, Lock 'N' Chase, and 
the arcade hit BurgerTime. 

Far from abandoning the old Atari VCS, 
this year M Network will release TVon 
Deadly Discs, BurgerTime, Adven- 
tures oftVon, Mission X, Star Strike, 
Air Raiders, In Search of Che Golden 
Skull, Advanced Dungeons and Dra- 
gons, Rocky and BuIIwinkle, Masters 
of the Universe, Kool-Aid Man, and 
another recent arcade game, Bump 'N' 
Jump. Mattel used to sit back and let 
Atari, Coleco, and Parker Brothers sn?^ 
up all the hit arcade licenses. Now they 
pursue them much more aggressively. 

Intellivision Games 

In addition to BurgerTime, owners of 
Intellivision and Intellivision II will be 
blessed with at least 16 new games in the 
near future. Motocross will simulate the 
breakneck world of motorcycle racing, 
and you will even be able to design your 
own race course. Vectron is a space game 
which will pit you against some nasty 
enemies— the Hungrees, the G-spheres, 
the splits, the sweeps, and the prizums. 
All-Star Major League Baseball is an 
improved version of the highly acclaimed 
Mnjor League Baseball from a few years 
ago. In Ail-Star, you can kick up a cloud 
of dust as you slide into third base. Other 
Intellivision games will include Loco 
Motion, Mission X, Buzz Bombers, 
Thin Ice, Royal Dealer, Mystic Castle, 
and Bump 'N' Jump. Our only com- 
plaint is the lack of newer games for the 
Intellivoice module. If you've got TVon 
Solar Sailer, Bomb Squad, B-17 
Bomber and Space Spartans, you've 
got them all. 



iO VmSO GAMES PLAyES 



A Long Time Ago . . . 

In a galaxy far, far away, it seemed, 
George Plimpton promised thai we would 
someday be able to turn our Intellivisions 
into computers. Finally, that day has 
come. The Intellivision Entertainment 
Computer System is, essentially, two 
peripherals that can be plugged into 
either Intellivision or Intellivision 11 to 
make them into more than just game 
machines, y 

The first fferipheral. the Intellivision 
Computer Adaptor, plugs into the right 
side of the Intellivision, It features built- 
in BASIC program language, 2K RAM and 
will expand the sound capability of Intel- 
livision. With the Computer Adaptor, of 
course, you get a keyboard. The 49 key 
keyboard is laid out like a typewriter, but 
the keys are more like those on a calcula- 
tor, so they're really nut made for writing 
long term papers. However, if you've 
never touched a computer before, you can 
learn many of the fundamentals on your 
Intellivision. 

Mattel is releasing some very simple 
software programs to run on your Intel- 
livision Computer. How can anybody be 
threatened by titles like The Jetsons 
Ways with Words, Number Jumble, 
and The Flintstones Keyboard Fun? In 
addition, you can learn BASIC with Mr. 
BASIC Meets Bits 'N' Bytes and Pro- 
gram Builder. Another program called 
Game Factory lets you program your 



"In World Series 
Major League 

Baseball, you can 
program Fernando 

Valenzuela to try 

and strike out 

Babe Ruth." 



own games. You can choose from a Ubrary 
of different characters or backgrounds, 
and you can even plug in some of your 
Intellivision games and borrow charac- 
The other peripheral in the Entertain- 
ment Computer System is the Intellivision 
Music Synthesizer This is a 49 key piano- 
type keyboard which must be purchased 
separately and plugged into the Computer 
Adaptor. With a Music T\itor or Melody 
Blaster cartridge, you can learn to read 
music, play the piatui, and even write 
your own songs. Melody Blaster is 
actually a variation of Astro-smash— 
musical notes fall from the sky in the 
pattern of popular songs and you have to 



play the right keys to shoot them down. 

Other peripherals, such as a Data 
Recorder, Intellivision Printer, and Intel- 
livision Program Expander (adds 32K 
RAM and I2K ROM) will be available 
shortly, 

The AqaarittS Computer 

Rather than turning your game system 
into a computer, some of you may just 
want to buy a real computer. For you, 
Mattel has created Aquarius. When 
Aquarius first came out, it caught a lot of 
flak from people, mainly because of its 
rinky-djnk keyboard. The keys were 
calculator- type keys, and there wasn't 
even a space bar. It might have been 
useful for young children, but for every- 
body else, forget it. 

Fortunately, Mattel realized Aquarius 
was a mistake, and now we have 
Aquarius II. In addition to a full-stroke 
typewriter keyboard, Aquarius II is more 
powerful than Aquarius— 12K ROM and 
20K RAM expandable to 64K. For those of 
you who are interested in such things, 
Aquarius 11 has a Z80A microprocessor, 
built-in Microsoft BASIC, 16 colors. 320 
X 192 resolution, 40 x 24 character dis- 
play, upper and lower case letters, CP/M 
capability. . . and even a space bar. 

Naturally, the Aquarius is richly sup- 
plied with peripherals. The Aquarius 
Printer connects to the rear of the com- 

CONTINUEI) ON PAGE S6 




fHattet's Aquarius computer-it took a lot of flak for its "(olculator" keyboard. Aquarius M is coming at the end of the year, wHh more 
memory and keys you can type on. 



21 



WHAT'S IN STORE FOR YOU? 



AaiVISION 

Decathlon, Space Shuttle, 
Crackpots (VCS), Beamrider, 
Worm Whomper, Dreadnaught 
Factor (IN), River Raid. 
Kaboom (4/8/12). 

ADVENTURE 
INTERNATIONAL 

War, Labyrinth of Crete, TViad 
(4/8/12). TYinnel Tferror, Curse 
of Crowley Manor, Pirate 
Adventure, TViad (AP). 

AMIGA 

Mogul Maniac, Surfs Up, Off 
Your Rocker (VCS). 

ATARI 

Joust, Pole Position, Battle- 
zone, Dig Dug, Moon Patrol 
(VCS & 5200). Jungle Hunt. Ms. 
Pac-Man, Road Runner, Goofy, 
Xevious, Baseball. Berzerk, 
Pengo, Tempest, Robotron 
(5200). Cookie Monster, Alpha 
Beam, Big Bird, Dumbo Flying 
Circus, Miss Piggy Wedding, 
Pigs in Space, Charlie Brown, 
Sorcerer's Apprentice, Krull, 
Snow White, Dumbo (VCS). 

AVALONHILL 

London Blitz, Death TVap, Wall 
Ball (VCS). Runnequest, Dra- 
gon Pass, Elric. 

BRODERBUND 

Lode Runner, Drol, Spare 
Change (AP). Cargo Bay 
(4/8/12). Solo (VCS). Sky Blazer 
(VCS & VIC). Choplifter, Ser- 
pentine (5200 & 64). A.E. 
(VIC). Seafox (VIC & 64). 
David's Midnight Magic (64). 

CBSELEaRONICS 

T^rg, Kickman, l\innel Runner 
(VCS). K-Razy Antics, K-Star 
Patrol (VIC). Wizard of Wor. 
Gorf (5200 & IN). Wings. 
Domino Man, Madden Football 
(5200, IN, COL, 4/8/12). Solar 
Fox (IN, 4/8/12, 5200). Blue- 
Print (5200, IN, 4/8/12). Moun- 
tain King (VCS, 5200, COL). K- 
Razy Shootout (5200). Omega 
Race (5200, VCS, IN, 4/8/12). 
Satan's Hollow (5200, 4/8/12). 

COLECO 

Time Pilot, T^rzan, Wild West- 
ern, Front Line, Subroc, 
Destruction Derby. 



COMMAVID 

Rush Hour. Stronghold (VCS). 

CREATIVE SOFTWARE 

Save New York (64). Mutants in 
Subway. Rat Hotel, Pipes (VIC). 

DATAMOST 

Conquering Worlds, New 
Human Fly. Ardy the Aardvark, 
Space Ark, Cavern Creatures, 
The Biletoads, Snowbound 
(AP). Cosmic TVmnels, Wiz N 
Roo, Mail Boy, Night Raiders 
(4/8/12). Topsee l\irvee, Jet 
Boot Jack, Paint Wizard (64 & 
4/8/12). Monster Smash (64, 
AP, 4/8/12). Venus Voyager 
(64). Roundabout (VIC, AP, 
4/8/12). 

DATASOFT 

Moon Shuttle, O'Riley's Mine j 
(4/8/12). Dallas, Pooyan 
(4/8/12, TRS,AP, VIC, 64). Zax- | 
xon (AP). 

ELECTRONIC ARTS , 

Hard Hat Mack, Axis Assassin 
(AP). Archon, M.U.L.E., 
Worms? (4/8/12). 

EPYX 

SWAT Rescue, Gateway to 
Ap.shai, Lunar Outpost, Pit- 
Stop, Rom's Revenge, Silicon 
Warrior, Jumpman Junior, 
Seawolf II, Gun Fight, Circus, 
Spectar, Fire One, Star Fire, Oil 
Barons, Dragonridersof Pern. 

FIRST STAR 

Soap Suds (VCS). Rent Wars, 
Flip Flop (4/8/12 & 5200). Bris- 
tles (4/8/12, AP, VIC, 5200). 

FOX 

Porky's, Mash II, Fall Guy 
(VCS. VIC, COL, TI, 4/8/12). 

GAMESTAR 

Star League Biseball, Adven- 
tures of Dutch Dugan (4/8/12). 

GCE 

Pole Position, Star Castle, Bat- 
ter Up, Dark Tbwer (VEC). 

IMAGIC 

Beezer (IN). Tarantula, Solar 
Storm, Hop lb It (VCS). Fathom 
(VCS, COL, VIC, 4/8/12, IN). 
Moonsweeper (VCS, VIC, 
4/8/12, IN, COL). Nova Blast 
(VCS, IN, COL, 4/8/12. VIC). 
Flap (VIC, IN, 4/8/12). 



INFOCOM 

Suspended (AP). Enchanter, 
Planetfall. 

KONAMI 

Pooyan, Strategy X, Scramble, 
Marine Wars (VCS). 

MAHEL 

Kool-Aid Man, Bump 'N' Jump, 
Masters of Universe (IN, VCS). 
Vectron. Motocross, Rocky and 
Bullwinkle (IN). Mission X, 
Loco Motion (VCS). Burgertime 
(AP, IBM. IN, VCS). Night 
Stalker (IBM, AP). 

ODYSSEY 

Adventures of the Pink Panther 
(VCS & COL). Power Lords 
(VCS, COL, ODY). Cavern 
(COL). 

PARKER BROTHERS 

Q'Bert (VCS, 4/8/12, VIC, 
5200, 64). AstroChase (VCS). 
Popeye, Risk, Chess (4/8/12). 
Super Cobra (VCS, 4/S/I2). 
TUtankham (VIC). Frogger (VIC 
& 4/8/12). 

PENGUIN 

Pie Man, Crime Wave, Spy's 
Demise, 'fi-an.sylvanja, Thun- 
derbombs(AP). 

ROKLAN 

Castle Hassle, Rockbali, Eyes, 
Da' Fuzz, Lifespan (4/8/12). 

ROMOX 

'Hixi, Sea Chase, Waterworks, 
Tbpper, Starion (4/8/12). Hen 
Pecked, Ant Eater (TI). 
Princess and Frog (TI & VIC). 

SEGA 

Congo Bongo, Buck Rogers, 
Star Trek (VCS, 5200, VIC, 
4/8/12, TI). Thunderground 
(VCS). 

SIRIUS 

Ozzie Ozone, Wayout, Shadow 
Scorcher (64). Critical Mass, 
Gruds In Space (AP). Cineman, 
Wavy Navy, Alpha Shield, Cap- 
ture the Flag (4/8/12). Fast 
Eddie, Snake Byte, 1\irmoil 
(VIC & 64). Final Orbit, Spider 
City (VIC, 4/8/12). Squish 'Em, 
Repton (VIC, 64, 4/8/12). Buz- 
zard Bait (AP & IBM). Plasma- 
nia (AP & VIC). Type Attack 
(4/8/12 & VIC). 



SIERRAON-LINE 

Jawbreaker (4/8/12). Golf, 
Mouskattack (IBM). 

SPECTRAVIDEO 

Frantic Freddy, Armored 
Assault, Spectron, Super Cross 
Force, Renegade, Space 
Swarm, Frogger, Quest for Tires 
(SPEC). 

SPINNAKER 

Alphabet 200, Cosmic Life, 
Delta Drawing, Delta Music, 
Facemake, Up for Grabs (4/8/12 
&64). 

STARPATH 

Rabbit Transit, Sweat, Survival 
Island, Party Mix, Sword of 
Saros (VCS). Dragonstomper, 
Escape from Mindma-ster (COL, 
4/8/12). Phaser Patrol (COL). 

SYNAPSE 

Protector II, Picnic Paranoia, 
Pharoah's Curse, Shadow 
World, Dimension X, Blue Max 
(4/8/12). Astro Patrol, Squeeze, 
Salmon Run (VIC). Fori Apoca- 
lypse, Survivor (64). Shamus 
(64, AP, TRS). Drelbs (4/8/12 & 
64). 

TELESYS 

The Impossible Game (VCS). 

THORN EMI 

Ore Attack, River Rescue 
(4/8/12). 4th Encounter, Sub 
Commander (VIC). War Games 
(VIC, 4/8/12, TI). 

TIGERVISION 

Miner 2049er (VCS). Polaris 
(VCS, 4/8/12, VIC, TI). 

TRONIX 

Deadly Skies, Gold Fever, Scor- 
pion (VIC). Juice (4/8/12, 64). 

UMI 

Pennant Drive, Word Feud, 
Grand Master, Fuego (VIC & 
64). 



VCS = Atari VCS, IN = lnlellivliion, 
5200 = Atori 5200, 4/8/12 = Alari 
400/800/1200 compuiets, COl = Col- 
ecoVUion, GEM = Coleco Gemini, 
VIC = Commodore VIC-20, 64 = Corn- 
modore 64, AP=Apple II, TRS=Radio 
Shack TRS-80, TI = Te>!os Insrrumetits TI 
99/4A, VEC = \fecttei(, IBM=IBM PC, 
ODY = Odyssey2, SPEC = Spectravideo 
computer. 



a V{DR) GAMES PLATER 




AlARnilTRODUCES 
JUNGIE HUIIT>^'*>'>**foo 



WITH THE 




• II 



ATARTSAFJIRI SWEEPSTAKES 



Get ready for adventure! 

Now you can bring home the excitement of 
JUNGLE HUNT and KANGAROO!*" two 
of the wildest games to ev^ hit the arcades, 
and enter the $100,000 ATARI SAFARI 
SWEEPSTAKES. 




OFFICIAL RULES: 

t NOPURCHASE NECESSAHYTO ENTER, Simply sefida 

compleied entry blank c>r3"i5"car(l wilhyout lull name and 
address lo ATARI SAFARI SWEEPSTAKES. PO Box 22. New 
York. NV 10046 Additional entry blanks avarlable al parlici- 
paling dealets 

2 Send as many entries as you like, one enlry per envelope 
Enities must De received By SeptemDer IS. 1963 

3 Winners will Ce selected in random drawings conOucled 
tjy Warden. Kane. Inc . an independeni ludgrng organiialion 
wiiosedecisionsaretinal Allpn/eswiiibeawatded Onlyorie 
prize pef lamily Thefe are no pnze subslitulions ocfrriitted, 
not ace 'he prizes Iransleiable Taxes on piiies are the sole 
reSDOnsiDilily ol winners Odds ol winning depend on Ihe 
numtjef of entries received Pruewinners may be required to 
sign an allidavn ot eligibility and release which must be re- 
turned within lourteen (14] JaysaHer being notitied Ol winning 
Winners grant permission to use Iheir name. City and state 
and/or pholograph loi pubiicalion in connection with this 
sweepstakes and similar promotions without addilional 
compensation 

4 The Grand Pnze ot a Iwo-we^ vacation for lour to Alnca 
or Australia includes coach air liansponal<on Irom airpon 
closest 10 winners home hotel accommodations lor l3 nights 
and $2,000 total cash lor meals and spending money In the 
event a minor wmsihe trip, it will beawarOed to his/ tier parent 
or l^al guardian. 

5 Sweepslakes open only lo U 5. residents except employ- 
ees (and their tamiliesl of Warner Communications, Inc , its 
advertising agencies, subsidiaries or altiliates, or Marden- 
Kane, Inc Eweepsiat^es sobiecito all Federal, State and local 
regulations Void where proliitjited or restricted by law 

6 For a hstot winners, send a stamped sell- addressed er>ve- 
lope 10. Winners List ATARI SAFARI SWEEPSTAKES. P O. 
Box 145. New York, NY 10046 

C'19B3 ATARI. INC AJI Rigfiis Reserved 



GRAND PRIZE! 

Win a camera safari for four to your 
choice of Africa or Australia. 

1ST PRIZE: 

Win one of 100 ATARI SAFARI 

camera kits, including a CANON AE-1 
35mm camera. 50mm and 135mm lenses 
an automatic flash unit and custom 
carrying bag. 

2ND PRIZE: 

Win one of 1000 
ATARI SAFARI Big Game 
Vtetches by Novus. 

3RD PRIZE: 

Win one of 5000 ATARI 
SAFARI duffle bags. 




hlame_ 



Address. 
City 



19B3 ATARI. INC. All Righls Reserved 




vot^iliA J |idJuo^,«^ ■f'O ^ u' Tdico AmflricJi Cixt^f ^1^1" 1^^ 




JLINGLE HUNT and KANGAROO 

illiMe fcK botn Ihe 
ATARI »00" ind 5200" 9Bni« aytfama 



THI SIOOOOO ATARf SAFARI 
SWHPSTAKIS INTRY BIANK 

SEND COMPLETED ENTRY TO: ATARI SAFARI SWEEPSTAKES 
RO. Box 22. New York, NY 10046 
Entries must be received by September 15, 1983 to be 
eligible for the sweepstakes drawing. 



T^DOijaid under 



« 



mMSTHArAUEN! 



Know the enemy! These words are as true in video games 
as they are in nuUtary waif are. Can you name the games 
represented by the creeps on this page? Write them all down 
on a numbered sheet of paper and send them to us. You may 
be the winner! 



'«( 94 «( f4 «( «( 
iffi (^ (^ fffi (^ fit 

■ tuJ tuJ IjuJ tuJ UaI tuJ 

jC X 5C jC X jC 
|23tft 




WIN AN MmisMN CARTWHse umum! 





g Here's my entry! The attached sheet 



proves I know the enemy better than 

Miybody. 

Send Uj: Video CJames Player, 888 ?lii At*., 

Nni'York,NYW}06 

Name 

Address 



City 



State 



-Zip 



KINt HKINT: THe Activi.-.ii>ii Rsmw are Citlall. Ihiippet ("mmand, 
StirmasHT, Meganuuiia. Kiboiim, let Hwcke), Hivflr Haid. Seaiiuesi. 
Mpiiter Fighiff. Keysione KBpers, Dolphin. Rrduro It iherp l^ muin 
Lhar iiiK TOiTWl rnlry. we wdl randnmly ehoasr cue o( Ihrm Thii 
nmtestiivuidwhfKpruhibicedby law. sudoniKiveusahardtiine 
about il , okiyV 



SWAP SHOP 



Do you have some old games or 
equipment that you're tired of? Do 
you want to sell them or trade them 
for something else? The Swap Shop 
is a free (no catches, no strings 
attached, no ripoffs) service to our 
readers. 



tJnique swap deal. The foliowinf? VCS 
cartridges for sale or trade: E.T., 
Demon Attack. Combat. Defender, 
Spiderman, andGorf. flamwl wantin 
return: Centipede, M Network Base- 
ball, Phoenix and Miner 2049er. 
Ricky Foster. 1753 Redwood Awe., 
Hanover Park, lllinujs6U103. 

Selling games for the Atari 2600 and the 
Commodore VIC-20 computer. For the 
2600-BowUng. For the VIC-Mission 
Impossible, Best ofTer accepted. Mr. 
Dan Wiihelm. 400 West Baseline *313, 
Tfempe, Arizona 82583. 

Intolliviston games Tor sale or trade. 
Astrosmash and Utopia. Best ofTer. 
Bobby Forte, 10 OrohardSt,, Millbury, 

MassachussetLs 01527. 

I want to sell my Intellivision along with 

II canridges. a few of which are: Tton 
Deadly Discs, TVon Maze- A-TVon , 
Dungeons and Dragons and Night 
SUlker. S2O0 or best offer for the 
whole package. John Kolesar, 1996 N. 
Lafox, South Elgin, Illinois 60177, 

Cartridges for the Astrocade system for 
sale. Bally Basic, Galactic Invasion, 
Pinball and six other Rame-s. Best price, 
also, 1 have an Astnirade .system which 
is broken if anybody want; to make me 
mi offer for it. J, A. Armstrong, 104 
South Roby Drive, Anderson, Indiana 
46012. 

I am selling my entire 40 cartridge Atari 
VCS game library. You can buy it all or in 
pieces. Also, my VCS is for sale. It is fine 
for paddle games, but slightly defective 
for joystick games on the left controller 
Best offer. Eugene Grandy. 2706 West 
33rd St., Brooklyn, New York 11224. 

Selling cartridges for Atari, t>)leco and 
Intellivi-sion Lowe-st prices around. 
Send 50 cents for my catalogue. Also 
looking to hoy used cartridges for Atari , 
Coleco and Intellivision, All titles, 
Andrew Pachnik, 17163 Strasburg. 
Detroit. Michigan 48205. 

Atari games for sale or trade, best offer 
Street Racer, Flag Capture, 
Breakout, Yar's Revenge, Adven- 
ture, Space Invaders, Benerk, Star 



Ship, Missile Command, t will listen 
to all trade possibilities. Keith Kugell. 
Box9, Oxford. Maine 04270, 

Cla.s.sic VCS games for swap. Pac-Man, 
Kaboom, Frogger and Asteroids. 
IVade fur any possibles, especially Cen- 
tipede and Ms. Pac-Man. Will listen to 
any offers, Jim Murphy, 323 Tbftrees 
Ave., State College, Pennsylvania 
16801. 

Anybiidy want my Combat? I don't 
know why anyliody wiiuld. hot I just 
thouuhl I'd a.sk. Liioking t^i buy, cheap; 
Frogger, Star Raiders, Cosmic Arc, 
Planet Control, Vanguard, Berzerk. 
Bill Anderson, 150 Norman Rd., 
Newark. New Jersey 07106. 

I'm selling these games 1 designed for 
the Atari 400/800 aimpuier. Wall War 
is a disc for S29,05. Mr. Cool is a 
cartridge, price not fixed yet. Also 
available from Sierra On-Line. Peter 
Oliphant, 4405 The Strand. Apt. A, 
Manhattan Beach, California 90266, 

For sale. Twenty Atari cartridges and 
ten lntelIivi,';ion cartridges. Dennis 
Rangel, 3718 Huldosa, Dallas, Tfexas 

75228. 



Cames for the Intellivision for sale: 
Soccer and Astrosinash. £1!^ each. 

Al-so looking to purchase other games 
for Intellivision and ColecoVislon. Get 
in Uiuch. Peter (fade. 209 Cflmly Road, 
Apt. F-23. Lincoln Park, New Jersey 
07035. 



1 want to sell: Space Jockey by D.S 
Games. It will be a collector's item some 
day. 1 want to buy : Rip-OfT for Vectrex 
Gary Gonzalez. 12019 Rose Ave., Los 
Angeles, California 90066. 

For -sale, at best ofTer Atari VCS 
cartridges- Haunted House and Pac- 
Man. Also, if there is anybody out there 
who wants to sell some good games for 
the Ttxas Instruments 99 4/A, please 
get in touch with me. Hepburn Stro- 
man. 843 Law Lane, Mount Pleasant. 
South Carolina 29464. 



Numerous Intellivision cartridges for 
sale or swap. Astrosmash, Tron 
Deadly Disc, Night Stalker, Football, 
TVon Mase-A-TVon, Advanced Dun- 
geons and Dragons, Donkey Kong, 
Sea Battle, Beauty and the Beast, 
Space Spartans and some othen. 1 am 
interested in getting Swords and Ser- 
pents, Microsurgeon, Atlantas, 
IVuckin' and Dracula, .lames C. 
Hemandra, lOOfi Magnolia Ave,, Pla- 
centia, CaUfornia 92670. 

Starpath Supercharger for sale. Used, 
but like new. S20. Rick S Butler, 4559 
Capitol Reef Ct-, .San Jose. California 
9.51^6. 

ColecuVision owners! Want to buy my 
Cosmic Avenger cart? In retuni, I am 
inUTPsled in buying olher Culet'o Vision 
game*, especially the newer releases, 
Brett Lawler, 4070 Franks Drive, 
Hicker, Georgia 30(184- 

I just bought an Atari 5200 and am 
kN)king for games for it. Also I am sell- 
ing my Golf cartridge for the 2600, 
Brian Emrisko, 116 Patti Drive, St, 
Clairsville, Ohio 43950. 



How would you liVe to own Freeway, 
Surround, Superman, Frogger and 
Atlantis!' Write me, I am interested in 

swapping these for .some of your games. 
All others considered. Edward Thomas 
Robinson, 20 Osborne Ave., Reading, 
Massachusetts 01867. 



1 am interested in buying used 
cartridges for the Coleco-Visior system , 
especially Gorf and Pepper II. Do you 
have any you want to part with? Greg 
Smith, 601 South Ea,st 68th Street, 
Omaha, Nebra.-Aa 68106, 

If yau would like to place a 
f^ee ad in the Swap Shop, 
send your ad along with 
your name and address to: 
Swap Shop, Video Games 
Player, 888 7th Ave., New 
York, NY 10106. We will 
print as many ads as fit 
the page. We accept no 
responsibility after an ad 
is published. 




'it's a deal. I'll trade yov my bob/ brofher for your Enduro cortridge/' 



£6 VIDEO GAMES PLATER 



star League Baseball. 

it Makes Dreams Come TVue 

On The Atari 400/800/1 200XL 

And Commodore 64. 





It youVe ever dreamed of becoming a major 
leaguer, your dream has just come true. Introduc- 
ing STAR LEAGUE" BASEBALL by 
GAMESTAR, For the Atari"^ Home Computers 
and Commodore 64."' 

STAR LEAGUE" BASEBALL brings home all 
the realistic action and strategy of our national 
pastime. For starters, it offers the most lifelike 
animation ever seen in a sports game, from the 
wind-up and delivery of the pitcher to the arc (and 
shadow) of a fly ball! 

STAR LEAGUE'" BASEBALL lets you choose 
your starting team and pitcher. You can even bring 



in a "knuckleball" throwing reliever when your 
starter "tires!" 

And, of course, STAR LEAGUE'" BASEBALL 
lets you play solitaire against a hard-hitting com- 
puter team or a human opponent. All to the excit- 
ing sounds of real baseball, from the crack of the 
bat to the cheer of the crowd! 

Ask for STAR LEAGUE'" BASEBALL by 
GAMESTAR at your nearest Atari* or Com- 
modore dealer today and make your major 
league dream come true. Or write: GAMESTAR 
INC., 1302 State Street, Santa Barbara, CA 93101 
(805) 963-3487 for our free catalog and Tips for 
Stars #2 (for STARBOWL" FOOTBALL owners). 




WE BRING SPORTS ALIVE. 



e 19a3. GAMESTAR, INC. 
J*U RIGHTS RESERVED 



Awn and 400/800'iZOOXL are lodomarts o( A»n, Inc 
CotnnodOiV 64 IS a Iradema'ti o< Commodore Business Machines. Inc 



^ // ^ y A A 



o 



n 



-/^ 



Illegal ripoff games have infested the arcades ... and YOU may be playing them 



By Michael Blanchet 





OBODY MAKES A MONKEY OUT OF ME!" THE 



V J /-■ o I 



of my best players with it!" 

This was the kind of case I lived for. I patted the 
bulging .357 magnum under my trenchcoat and smiled 




thinly. "Vn fake my buddies 
Smith and Wesson along 
for insurance/' 

The LA, fog rolled in like 
a wave of Galax ian 
cruisers as I gunned the 
Ford down La Cienega Bou- 
levard, The address he'd 
given me turned out to be a 
rundown warehouse on the 
bad side of town, I crushed 
a Lucky Strike under my 
heel and cased the joint. 

Peering in a wmdow, I 
spied a sleazy dvtfarf 
screaming on the phone, I 
slapped an ultra-sonic bug 
on the window, popped in 
the earplug and listened in, 
"You kiddin'?" he said, "I 
got new Pac-Mans for 
$1200/" I knew those 
games cost over f^o 
grand, so the dwarf had 
to be dealing ripoff mer- 
chandise, 

''You've ripped off your 
last game, dv^arfl" I yelled 
as I kicked open the door 
and threw aown on him 
with my rod. He just 
laughed, and I didn't know 
^hy until the blackjack hit 
me from behind and the 
lights w^ent out. 

f finally came to and 
found myself tied up in 
back, surrounded by empty 
crates marked "Taiwan to 
USA— 3rd Class," In the cor- 
ner, a stooge was attaching 
a Congorilla sign on a 
game, "Dump this nerd in a 
crate and drop it in the 
bay," the dvfarf cackled, 
crushing my good joystick 
hand unaerfoot as he 
walked past, 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 

Video Gante Detectives 

The names have been changed to protect 
the innocent, but this is only a slightly 
twisted version of the latest case of an 
investigator who specializes as a "Video 
Giunes Detective," hiring himself out to 
arcade owners, video game cnmpani^ and 
independent software compani^. 

Like hundreds of other distributors across 
the countTy, "the dwarf' dealt in bootleg 



CHAOftCTEH NlCKHftr-f 



^ MACHIBOSC- "Pint- 

KIHAGURE- "AOSUKE 
*$ UTUBOKE GUZl' 




Sotice that "Ncwpuc 1 "has three tunnels on each fiide instead of V&c-tAaj\ 's two. The 
ripoff also has Japanese nicknames. Bull Prog in a near-perfect Frogger ripoff. The 
NauRhiy Boy ripttfT actually heat the legitimate Naughty Boy into the arcades! 



games— illegal c^ies of machines designed 
and manufactured by other firms. Crooks 
like these usually display some legitimate 
games in their showrooms as a front, but 
rarely sell anything but ripoffs. Sal was 
raking in the bucks by selling what he felt 
were identical machines for a lot less than 
distributors selling the real games. But he 
was bre^iking the law, and you're one of his 
victims, too. 

Video games can be copied as easily as 
records and movies. All you need Is the 
right equipment. Or the right connections. 
"The dwarf' wasn't copying the games 
himself. He merely bought the logic bitards 
from an electronics company in Thiwan. 
Each board a)ntained a program similar to 
the one in a popular video game. Then he 
installed the boards in wooden cabinets 
along with a monitor and a power supply. 
These c^inets are then painted and given 
names. Tb avoid being too obvioas, Pac- 
Man, for example, was changed to Puck- 
Man . If a customer asks, the ripoff explains 
that Pac-Man and Puck-Man are different 
for one reason or another. But you aren't 
buying a first-rale machine. You're getting 
a copy and a bad one at that. Likewise, 
anyone who plays the game won 't get his or 



her quarter's worth. 

Where do bootleg games come from? 
Excfpt for tiie garage (>pi?rations that copy 
only a handful of games, most high volume 
bootleg fact*jries are located overseas. For 
the private distributor, exportation is the 
cheapest way to do business. Labfir is inex- 
pensive and, most importantly, there are no 
copyright laws protecting video game 
software in the Far East. The finished cir- 
cuit boards are then shipped stateside— 
where jerks like "the dwarf" put them in 
cabinets and peddle them off as the real 
thing. 



Making a Ripoff 

The games are so cheap because of 
several factors. The logic boards are copied, 
for starters. No game designers to pay, no 
research and development costs (potentially 
the most expensive part of the manufac- 
turing process). Secondly, the materials 
used in the actual construction of the 
machine are of poor quality. Flimsy ply- 
w(K)d cabinets, possibly used ab-eady, are 
substituted for strong particle board cabi- 
nets. 

Comers are also cut with the game con- 
trollers. This is where the player can detect 



30 VIDEO GA.VESPLAyeR 



a fake from the real McCoy. In an Italian- 
made copy of Centipede, for example, a 
joystick was used instead of a trackball. 
Why? It's cheaper, of course. 1 asked one 
bootleg dealer about the joystick on the 
game that was supposed to be Centipede 
(the name on the top said Bug Blaster) and 
he said the stick worked better than the 
trackball. 1 played the game and was sur- 
prised that it looked like the real thing. The 
joystick, though, only moved in four direc- 
tions. Furthermore, there was only one 
firing button instead of two, so Bug Blaster 
was almost unplayable by left-handed peo- 
ple, lb top it off, the rapid-fire feature had 
been deleted because, according to this 
crook, the original Centipede was too easy. 
Who would want to play a game like that 
ripoff? 



Bootlegs — Low Scores 

Whether we realize it or not, most of us 
have probably played a iKMitleg game at one 
time or another Becaase of the chc^^i c(jn- 
struction, bootlegs don't respond as well as 
a legitimaU', well-constructed game. 

Since pirated game« are illegal, you're 
not likely to find them in big arcades or 
other high-traffic areas. Operators (that's 
the machine's owner) generally place them 
in offbeat locations such as small corner 
delis, pixzerias, movie theatres, conven- 
ience stores and gas statk>ns. Anyplace you 
wouldn't expect to find a video game is a 
goo<i spot for a bootleg game. 

The actual copying can be done a number 
of ways. The most popular method involves 
using a machine called an EPROM Duplica- 
tor. After acquiring an authentic logic 
board, the pirate must remove each of the 
intei^ted circuits. Each IC is about half the 
size of a book of matches. The game pro- 
gram, or computer code, has been 
"burned" into each of the ICs, These half 
dozen or so wafer-thin bits of plastic and 
metal are the heart of the video game. They 
determine what you see, what you do, how 
many lives you get and so forth. 

The programmed IC is then plugged into 
the duplicator, along with a blank. When 
the duplicator is switched on, the informa- 
tion contained in the programmed chip is 
burned into the blank. Once a complete set 
of ICs has been made, the pirate refers to a 
schematic that tells him how to build the 
rest of the lo^c board. Once the chips are 
plugged back into the completed circuit 
board the copy artist has a duplicate of the 
original— a clone. In an attempt to avoid 
^y legal trouble, the pirate may make 
some minute changes in the attract mode, 
the game title or the game characters. 
What does all this mean to you, the 



player? Let's look at it in another light. 
Suppose you want a copy of the new Bruce 
Springsteen album but you don't have the 
money to buy it. Your best friend already 
has it so you ask to borrow it. You take it 
home and record it ofTyour stereo, For the 
price of a blank cassette, you now have a 
perfect copy You return the record to your 
friend and everyone's happy— your buddy 
has his album and you have your tape. 

But what about Springsteen? Since you 
copied his record instead of buying it, "The 
Boss" has lost out on a royalty that he is 
legally due. The record store has last a sale. 
Sure , your one ta^w isn 't going l^) cause Wall 
Street to collapse— but what would happen 
if 100,OCIO or maybe a million people copied 
that one record? The record store would 
certainly go out of business. Bnice Spring- 
steen would also have to find another job 
because songwriting would no longer be 
profitable. 



'7he Centipede ripoff 

istaWed Bug 

Blaster. It has 

no trackball, no 

rapid fire, and just 

one fire button." 



On another note, let's say someone 
bought Bruce's album and copied it— but 
instead of using ta^, he pressed a bootleg 
record. How would you feel about buying a 
fake for eight or ten bucks? It's not first 
quality and certainly doesn't sound as good 
as your friend's copy Now you're unhappy, 
and Bruce has missed out again . Legitimate 
video game makers face a similar problem. 

According to industry spokespet)ple, fif- 
teen to twenty percent of a game's cost goes 
back into research and development. R and 
D, as it hi called, Ls the process of designing 
new games. Pirates don't invest in new 
ide^— they steal them. Their profits go into 
their pockets and stay there. Unless pirates 
are stopped, companies such as Midway, 
Atari, Sega, Williams and Nintendo may 
not have the money to develop tomorrow's 
games— the games you'll waiU to play. D 



HOW TO SPOT A RfPOFF 

Bootlegs are mjunly placed well off 
the beaten path— a corner store, 
highway rest-stop or any other place an 
FBI agent wouldn't reidily check out. 
But don't be surprised to find one in 
your local arcade. Some copies are so 
good even the game room owner may 
have been fooled. Here's what to look 
for: 

1. The manufactiu^r's emblem some- 
where on the machine. It can be found 
on the control panel, the screen or the 
marquee (the part of the machine that 
sticks out over the screen.) If you don't 
see one, watch the attract mode (when 
the game is playing itself). M(wt games 
have the maker's name displayed on the 
bottom of the screen, along with a copy- 
right date. 

2. Check out the name of the game 
and the cabinet artworit. If the name is 
misspelled or changed to sound like the 
original title (Pac-Man U) Pack-Man) 
it's probably a copy The c^inets of 
most ripoffs are one color with little or 
no artwork. Lately I've noticed quite a 
few covered with wood-grain contact 
paper. 

3. Game instructions, usually printed 
right on the screen. If they're missing or 
otherwise jumbled up, chances are the 
game was copied. Certain ma<;hines 
manufactured entirely overseas carry 
two sets— one in the native tongue, the 
other in terribly translated English. 

4. The control panel c^n be a dead 
giveaway in most cases. Most bootleg 
games have been converted more than 
once. Thus many holes have to be drilled 
to accomodate the different joysticks 
and buttons necessary for various 
games. Look for open holes on the con- 
trol panel. 

Here are names of some ctypies: 

Defender: Mayday, Defense Com- 
mand, Depender, Defenders, Mutant 
Attack, Baiter Attack, Humanoid Res- 
cue 

Pac-Man: Pack-Man, Puck-Man, 
Speedy, Cruiser. Gobbler, New Puc, Pak- 
Man, Pirahna, Cruncher. Bucaneer, 
Barracuda, Mighty Mouth, Pop Man, 
Eager Eater, Munch Man 

Centipede: Bug Blaster, Worm War, 
Buggy, Centipedes. Bug Attack 

Ms. Pac-Man: Mrs. Pac-Man, Ms. 
Pac-10, Pac-3, Pac-4 

Donkey Kong: Crazy Kong, Con- 
gorilla, King Kong 

Frogger: Frog, Hopperty, Fro^ 



SI 



Magic Alex 

^^ J Alex Leavens designed Gorf, Crazy Climber, and Stargimner. 



He also levitates his wife. ByDanGutman 



VGP: You're probably the only video game designer who also does magic. 

AL: Actually, I know at least two other designers who do magic. There seems to be some creative 

link between the two professions. I think it's a need to blow people's minds. A magician wants to 

pull you into his httle reality, do something impossible, and leave you amazed. A designer wants to 

do the same thing. 

VGP: What kind of tricks do you do? 

AL: Mostly sleight-of-hand tricks— card tricks, coin tricks. I started when I saw Doug Henning in 

The Magic Show when I was 12. The trick in the photo is when 1 levitate a test tube and make the 



cork pop out into your hand. You can be 

standing two feet away, and you won 't be 

able to figure out how I do it. 

VGP: So how do you do it? 

AL: I'm not teUingl 

VGP: Then how about telling us about 

your latest games? 

AL: Sure. I've got two coming out. 77it' 

Impossible Game is an Atari VCS game by 

Telesys, who I designed Stargunner for. 

It's a puzzle game, sort of like Rubik's 

Cube. You don't blow anything up and 

nobody gets hurl— it's strictly a mental 

challenge. 

VGP: How did it come about? 

AL: They called me and said, "Design a 

puzzle game. We'll call it ' The Impossible 

Game! " 

VGP: Is it impossible? 

AL; Just about. If you take the number 

eight and raise it to the 21st power, that is 

the total possible number of pioves in the 

3! VIDEO CiMESPLMER 



game. Out of all that, there is just one 

correct path. 

VGP: Has anybody solved it yet? 

AL: No, but if you do, something very 

.spectacular happens, both visually and 

auditorallv. 

VGP: What is it? 

AL: I'm not telling^ 

VGP: Then tell us about the other game. 

AL: That's Soap Suds, another VCS game 

by First Star Software. It's kind of Q'- 

Bertesque. You run around a rectangular 

grid while this big soap bubble is chasing 

you. 

VGP: How close is it to i^'fiert? 

AL: It's the same type of game, it's not 

the same game. Just like Pac-Man opened 

up the field of maze games, the people 

who designed Q*Bert opened up a new 

area of game play— attempting to change 

things while being hunted. Actually, Soap 

Suds started out as The Emphysema 



Game— you were a pair of lungs trying to 
avoid a heart attack . A lot of people liked 
that idea, but a lot were grossed out by it 
too. 

VGP: You seem to like oddhall games. 
AL: Yeah. 6'o/fand5(a;xuw^f^were both 
real adrenaline games. Basically you 
could pick them up and flail on them— 
just shoot everything in sight. On games 
like those, you've got to disconnect your 
synapses and just make a straight linkup 
between your eyes and your hands— take 
your brain entirely out of the circuit, you 
know? You have to make yourself into a 
reflex machine. The same goes for a game 
like Kaboom, hy Activision. But every 
once in a while you want to work on an 
off-the-wall, goofball game. I've done 
three of them— Crazy Climber, Kickman, 
and Bouncing Baby Monkeys, 
VGP: Tell us about them. 
AL: Well, two of them may never exist. I 




designed Kickman for Midway a few years 
ago when they were thinking of entering 
the home game market. {Ed. note: A ver- 
sion ofKiekman iscomingfrom CBS Elec- 
tronics). Bouncing Baby Monkeys was 
based on an old Bugs Bunny cartoon. It's 
about this drunken stork that delivers 
Bugs to a gorilia family, thinking he is 
their baby. 

VGP: Take Pitfall, a game that is known 
for its graphics. If they were to take away 
some of the graphics, what could they 
have added to the game play? 
AL: Well, this is second guessing, but if 
I'd sacrificed some of the graphics I could 
have, let's see, maybe put in animals 
instead of just roiling barrels. Maybe 
you'd be able to go up the trees. It's hard 
to say. But i 'd say Pitfall is a good balance 
between graphics and game play. 
VGP: Vou design games for several com- 
panies. Do they ever ask you to change 
the graphics or game play of a game? 
AL: Sure. I was asked to put additional 
character sets into Stargunner. That was 
an intelligent choice. Sometimes a 
designer is too close to the game to see 
what should be improved. 
VGP: What did you have originally? 
AL: I just had the flying saucers and I was 
flat out of memory. 1 was at 4K, totally 
jammed, and they asked for two more 
character sets. I went, "OhhhhhbM" 



"fcaffedftr/ie 

Emphysema Game. 

You were a lung 

trying fo avoid 

a heart attack/' 



VGP: How did you squeeze them in? 
AL: 1 used a sledgehammer. I code com- 
pressed. There are literally hundreds of 
ways of finding a byte or two bytes. You 
see, when you start working on the game 
you don't always consider total effi- 
ciency. Then you get to the end and 
you're scrambling around for a couple of 
bytes. You can usually go back through 
your old code and kind of bludgeon it- 
bludgeon out an extra ten or twenty 
bytes. ! managed to get 110 bytes out of 
Stargunner, so I could fit the other 
character sets in. 

VGP; And that really improved the game. 
Have you ever received any stupid 



requests from companies? 
AL: Oh, sure. There was this one com- 
pany who shall remain nameless that 
asked me to design a maze game for them. 
I said okay, sure, and I went away and 
programmed it. I came back and they 
looked at it and said, "Oh, no, no, no. We 
wanted narrower pathways and we 
wanted power pills and..." Ail they 
wanted was someone to give them a Pac- 
Man ripoff . 

VGP: Alex, have we pushed the Atari 
VCS as far as it can go? 
AL: I don't think so. There are a lot of 
programmers who are under the impres- 
sion that you car only support so many 
objects on a scan line because you only 
have so many cycles to draw something 
on the TV. 1 agreed with that thinking, 
but recently I've worked out a way of 
supporting more objects that 1 thought 
possible. 

VGP: How do you do that? 
AL: Well, I don't want to talk about it a 
whole lot, but it's strictly a programming 
trick, a way of writing code most effi- 
ciently that will fit into the given time 
you have to draw a scan line. You have 76 
cycles and this is a fixed constant. You 
can't do anything about the time, so what 
you have to do is compress your code. I've 
discovered a way of making it do more 
than one thing at a time and have those 

CONTINUED ON PAGE 50 



3i VIDEO GAMES PUYER 



m 



^> 




wEwrruNE 



Up-to-the-minute gaming news 



,NEW YORK-U)NiJON-PAi<IS-0TTUMWA. 



This fall, COLECQ will announce a NATIONAL VIDEO GAME CHAMPIONSHIP COMPETITION 
with playoffs to be held in NEW YOrtK CITY . They are also starting a new club. 
THE COLEGOVISION VIDEO CLUB . For more info, write to them ati P.O. Box 'tOZS, 
Syoeset, NY 11791. Meanwhile* the company has been sued by another computer 
company that claims it owns the name A QAM . Games for the computer, by the way, 
will contain up to 500,000 bytes of information — 125 TIMES more than games for 
the Atari VCS... 

ATARI is starting to fight back and has been called " tp GOLEGO OF 1^83 ." They 
are about to unveil four new computers to replace the ^00/800/1200 line, and for 
$'*65, you can get the 600XL, printer, and disk drive --;^135 cheaper than AjjAM I 
Other ATARI news--Thev have licensed Nintendo's MARIO BROTHERS for home video 
games and computer games. XEVIOUS , "the game you can't play at home," will soon 
be available for the 5200, as will TEMPEST. ROBQTKON. PENGQ. JOUST. POLE POSITION , 
DIG DUG , and BATTLEZONE . We've seen the last four, and they look terrific. 
Atari VCS and 5200 owners will soon have speech synthesis modules, to be manu- 
factured by WILTON BRADLEY , along with 18 voice carts over three years. Atari 
Atari purchased ljO.OOO~TEI£PHONE CHASIS in Singapore and contracted PORSCHE to 
design the housings of their ATARITSL telephones. Nolan Bushnell, the roan who 
started Atari and was SUED by them recently, has licensed his future arcade 
games to Atari. Call WQ^Qk7-^^0^ if you want to get the solution to RAIDERS OP 
THE LOST ARK . Call 800-842-1225 to get service for your COLSCOVISION. . . 

lASSRDISCS are comingi RCA has given the technical specifications for their 
interactive videodisc system to game designers. Atari, Goleco, Mattel, and 
others are rushing to be the first with laserdisc games. DRAGON'S LAIR , though 
primitive, has started the flood. We can expect ENVIRONMENTAL games shortly-- 
games in which you step into a booth and actually become a part of the action, 
SIMUTRON already has a test "Tournament Center" in San Diego, where 16 players 
can play at once... 

QUICKIESi A company called VIDCO will release a $59.95 "Copy Cart" — a device 
that can transfer a VCS game onto a blank cartridge in TWO SECONDS . . . Two com- 
panies, INTSC and ESAC , are coming out with systems to replace qiiarters with 
credit-card-type devices in arcades , . , PARKER BROTHERS has licensed GYRUS , and 
will be making Q*BERT for VCS, ColecoVtsion, VIC-20, and Commodore 64... AMIGA 
has dumped Its POWER MODUI£ (it was basically the same as the STARPATH SUPER - 
CHARGER ) , but will be making their JOYBOARD for Atari 400/800 and VIC-20. fhey 
will also be coming cut with VCS carts that contain THREE SEPARATE GAMES . . . E,T. 
fans have a fan club. Write to them ati P.O. Box E.T., Ht, Morris, IL 61054.,, 
ELECTRONIC ARTS has hired JULIUS "DR^ J," ERYING and LARRY BIRD to help develop 
a computer basketball game. . . IMAGIC is about to release BEEZSk , their first 
arcade game. They have also changed the names of some upcoming games i TARANTULA 
becomes LASER GATES , HOP TO IT becomes QUICK STEP . FLAP becomes WING WAR.,, 

RETURN OP THE JEDI used to be called REVENGE OF THE JEDI , so if you have any 
posters or buttons with the old title, they are worth a lot of money. . , TIM 
SKELLY , who designed REACTOR for GOTTLIEB , is working on a new game called 
INSECTOR . . . SENTE'S first game will be GRIDLES . ■ .Coleco's JOHN DYKSTRA will be 
doing the special affects for the movie DUNE ... The re is a new video game news- 
letter called CLUBHOUSE . For info, write George Perry ati 104 Millstone Circle, 
Courtland, VA 23B37.. .Tokyo District Court has finally decided that video games 
should be copyrighted like books, as they are in the U.S. This should slow down 
THE VIDEO GAME PIRATES . ■ .Also, 15 Japanese companies and SPEGTRAVIDEQ in the U.S. 
have gotten together to make programs for all their computers compatible, ., Our 
next issue will be SLIGHTLY different. Call THE HOTLINE for details... 



CALL THE VIDEO GAME HOTLINE (212) 581-8267 



35 



MATTEL 



CONTINUED FROM PAGE 21 

puter and can print 80 characters per 
second, and up to 40 columns wide. There 
is also a "4-Color Printer" for those that 
need 80 columns. The Aquarius Modem 
will connect you with Aquarius Home 
Services (such as Hints From Heloise) and 
CompuServe. The Aquarius Master 
Expansion Module is a double disk drive 
that will be available in early 1984. There 
is also a Data Recorder, Aquarius Memory 
Cartridges, Aquarius Mini Expander (to 
play games), and the Command Console, 
which will be able to turn appliances iin 
and off in your home automatically. It 



will, for example, start dad's coffee 
before he wakes up, turn on the sprin- 
klers, and turn the lights on when nobo- 
dy's home. 

The software for Aquarius includes 
games (BurgerTime, Bump 'N' Jump, 
Night Stalker), education (LOGO, 
Match & Learn, Math & Mazes), home 
applications (Menn Planner, Tkx Tips, 
FiieForm), and self-improvement (Diet 
TVac, Biorhythms, Typemaster). 

ItttelUvision . . . Four? 

Even with computer enhancements, 




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FREE! WRITE FOR OUR COMPLETE CATAlOG 



QUESTAR CONTROLS, INC. 

(i7n N W IViKuvK.iiii.i All . 
Cluii-ilis. W.i^hinni.iri <JK5,^2 

Phone Orders 206-748-41"! 



the days of this "second generation' 
Intellivision game system are 
numbered. So what's next? Behind the 
guarded doors of Mattel's exhibit at the 
Winter Consumer Electronics Show, we 
were ushered into an almost completely 
dark room and allowed a peek at what 
was then called "Intellivision III." This is 
the same time Intellivision II was 
unveiled, by the way. Intellivision III, we 
were told, would have higher resolution 
(320 X 192) than the Atari 5200 and 
ColecoVision, It would be able to have 64 
independently moving objects on the 
screen at once. It would have a built-in 
voice, stereo output jacks, wireless con- 
trollers with real joysticks, noothe much- 
maligned Intellivision disc. It would be 
compatible with the first two Intellivi- 
sions, the System Changer, the Computer 
Adaptor, and the Music Synthesizer. It 
would have a 16-bit microprocessor 
instead of the 8-bit one found in the 5200 
and ColecoVision. lb put it plainly, it was 
pretty neat, and all the video game maga- 
zines rushed out "previews" of the new 
system. 

Well, Intellivision 111 has been 
scrapped. Mattel claims they have come 
up with a new graphics system— Super- 
Graphics— that allows them to program 
games for the Intellivision II that are just 
as spectacular as anything Intellivision III 
would have been able to display Super- 
Graphics (official name "Mattel Elec- 
tronics Graphic Development System 
GDS-78n9") produces multiple game 
screens, animated title screens, and gen- 
erally better- looking screens for games 
like BurgerTime, Pinball, and Masters 
of the Universe. According to Mattel, 
Intellivision III became unnecessary. 

However, according to a source at the 
company, Mattel is busily at work, in 
another dark room somewhere, creating 
the next Intellivision, which will be 
available sometime in 1984. Intellivision 
IV? Maybe, A laserdisc game system? 
That's a rumor. 

One thing is certain— with Intellivi- 
sion, M Network, Aquarius H, The Enter- 
tainment Computer System, and arcade 
licensed games, Mattel is fighting back 
. . . hard. Q 

Suggested retail price of items memioned in this 

urtirle-lntellivisiiinll; S150, System Changer: J80, 
Computer .Adaptor and Keyboard: $100. Music Syn- 
Ihesizen IKfl, AquJirius: $100-$1-S0. -IK Memory: 
S5(). IfiK Memnry: $100, 40-r«lumn printer: $165, 
8fl-column printer; S22.'i. Data Recorder: $,"10, 
Modem; S90, Command Console; $90. For $4110, the 
Aquarius, Miri-Expander, Data Recorder, and 
printer are sold in package railed COM/PAC. 



36 VIDW GAMES PLXtER 



SECOND 



WAVE 



TRICKY SITUATIONS FOR TOP PLAYERS 



Can You Survive? 



■^ you have guts? Can you handle any situation regardless of mutants, fusebalis, ghosts or other 

V^^^ assorted evil-doers? That's what we're here to find out. 

^WHB Every game room has its own "big guns" or "in-house pros." They are players whose initials 

^^^^^1 you see on most of the gomes in the arcade. H you've ever watched a good player, you will 
probably notice his strategy as well as his knock for coaxing the controls to respond in a crisis. What you 
don't see are the fail»safes these video jocks turn to in situations where death seems unavoidable. 

Let's see how you respond when the pressure is on. Here is a life and death situation. Your very existence 
is in peril. Con you survive? 



ZOO KEEPER 




THE CRISIS... 



Zeke is in trouble. Two animals are 
streaking toward him on the top side of 
the rectangle. The net would stop 
them, but if he jumps for the net, he'll 
land right on the far animal. Short of 
running away, how can he capture 
these animals? 



YOUR SOLUTION 



It is a iittle-known fact that if you 
jiggle the joystick back and forth in the 
middle of a leap, Zeke will hover in 
mid-air like a hummingbird. 1\y this 
tactic next time you're in a tight spot 
like this— it's not easy, but with 
practice you can land right on the net. 



ILLUSTRATEONS BY NINA WALIACE 



JR- 




By Bob Guerra 



Atari's VCS version of Ms. Pac-Mnn includes nearly all the 
elements that made its coin-op counterpart the most success- 
ful sequel game to date. Everything from the catchy opening 
theme to bouncing fruit and pretzels is intact. But game-play 
is the main attraction. 

Inslead of one maze to chomp your way through, there are 
four. Each has its own tunnel locations and dangerous pas- 
sages where inexperienced gobhlers 
can easily become surrounded and 
trapped. Six types of fruit and a pretzel 
randomly appear Ihroughoul the game 
and are worth up to 'MiO bonus points. 
Inky, Pinky, Blinky and Sue are all here, 
each distinguished by color as well as 
speed. 

After clearing a maze completely of 
dots, you get a new maze to clear. 
Mazes one-four must be cleared twice 
each before moving on to the next 
maze. Foliowingthe fourth maze, you 
will allernate between mazes three and 
four Un- the rest of the game. 



SCORING 

Each maze contains alKiut 150 dots 
thai are worth 10 [K)ints apiece. There 
are also four energy pills in ever>' maze, 
worth 50 points each. ^^^^^^H 

The first ghosi Ms. Pac-Man consumes 
after eating an energy pill is worth 200 points, 400 for the 
second, 800 for the third and 1600 for the fourth . All four 
^losts must be gobbled on a single energy pill to win the total 
3O0O points. 

Bonus points for eating fruit and pret zels are awarded 
as follows: 

CHERRY 100 APPLE 1000 

ORANGE 500 PEAR 2000 

PRETZEL 700 BANANA 5000 

MAZE ONE 

Because the wall sections arc relatively short in the first 
maze, it is difficult to become trapped in one section if you 
keep moving. The two escape tunnels {located about halfway 
up the left and right sides of the maze) also help Ms. Pac-Man 
avoid dangerous situations by allowing her to exit at one side 
of the screen, and reappear at the other. 

When play first be^ns, do nothing. Ms. Pac-Man will auto- 
matically move to the left. As this happens, watch the red 
ghost (fastest of the four) that begins the game already out of 
the central reincarnation box. If he goes right, begin clearing 
out the liottom lefl corner of the maze, but leave the energy 
pill until it's really needed. 

Gradually work your way over to the right side, using any 



''Don't waif by the 

power pills. Follow 

a ghost as he runs 

over the pill. Then 

eat him without even 

reversing direction." 



pattern that clears a lot of the center in a continuous chomping 
of dots. Always be prepared to escape up through the center 
of the maze if the gliosis close in. If the red ghost begins by 
moving left, head right via a quicker, more direct route. 

Try to keep track of how many dots you've eaten. When this 
number approaches 50, head directly for one of the escape 
tunnels on the right side of the maze. Upon eatingyour 50th 

dot, your first fruit— cherries— will enter 
the screen through one of the escape 
tunnels. If it enters at the right, you'll be 
in great position to pounce on it . If it 
enters at the left, Simply wrap through 
the nearest tunnel and do the same. 
Don't worry if you don't eat the cherries 
right away. They will bounce around the 
screen for up to 2b seconds before exit- 
Ingthrough another esca|>e tunnel. 

Now that you've cleared out mo.st of 
the lower half of the screen, eat the first 
cnerg>' pill. Carefully work your way up 
to one of the encrgv' pills at the top of 
the screen and wait beside it until one or 
more of the ghosts are very close. When 
you eat the pill, you get ei^t seconds to 
chase and eat Ihe ghosts. 

After turning blue, the ghosts fre- 
quently head for the corners. As you 
^ chase them, be careful not to inadver- 
tently run over a .second energy pill, This 
will begin the cycle all over again and you will lose the bonus 
you would have received for eating all four ghosts on the first 
pill. Avoid chasing any ghosts past the top of the reincarnation 
box once you've already eaten one or two. They may try to 
reenter the game as you're pas.sing directly above, and you 
will lose a game life- 

A second pair of cherries appears after the 1110th dot has 
been eaten. When it does, eat a second energy dot (provided 
there is at lea.st one ghost vcr>- close by). They try to get all 
four ghosts and the cherries before the effects of the energy 
pill wear off, or the cherries disappear. 

Be sure, as you"re finishing off the rest of this screen, to save 
at least one dot until after you've eaten your fourth energy pill 
and the ghosts it entitles you to. When this screen is com- 
pleted, it will be repeated (this time with strawberries). But 
the ghosts will be quicker and you'll have to be even more 
careful to avoid getting caught without a means of escape. 
Otherwise, the basic strategies should work just fine. 

MAZE TWO 

Although there are four fewer dots to eat in this maze, it's 
harder to clear for three reasons: ghosts move quicker; their 
vulnerability, after an energy pill is consumed, lasts only six 
seconds; and the escape tunnels at the bottom left and right of 



JJ< VmK'iGAMESPLMi:}/ 




fie caatious chasing a ghoit across the top of the ghosf pen. His buddy may pop out to nail you. When ghost^ start blinking, scramj^ 



the screen are often used by ghosts to take Ms. Pac-Man by 
surprise as she waits by one of the lower energy pills. 

When play begins, move to the left and then down U) clear 
the lower central imrtion of the maze. Then quickly race for a 
more open area before gett ing irapix^d. Work the sides of the 
maze, passing back and forth througli the second escajx' tun- 
nel until the first fruit appears. (Always ^ance al the opposite 
side of the screen before going through a tunnel, to avoid run- 
ning into a ghost u|>on your arrival on the ol her side.) 

When possible, clear the long top row of dots while luring a.s 
many gliosts as you can toward one of the waiting energy pills. 
As you chase the ghosts, try to clear al least a portion of the 
confined central section of dots directly below the (op row. 
Althou^ the energy pills don't last as long, never give up the 
chase until the ghosts have blinked twice. 

MAZE THREE 

If you make it through the second maze twice and still have 
a Ms. Pac-Man or two to spare, you should do well on maze 



three if you focus all your attention on methodically clearing 
the maze of dots. Since energy pills will now only effect the 
ghosts for four seconds, don'l waste time, after ealinga pill, 
by chasing ghosls over areas that have already been cleared. 
instead, concentrate on eating all the dots near each energ>' 
pill, thus clearing close to one quarter of the screen at a time 
with each energv' pill that you eat. 

Try to clear the central portion of the screen a little at a time 
{in short pas.ses)as you move from one energy pill area to the 
next - Eat all the apples and pears you can, since getting all 
four fruits on these screens increases your score by HOIHl points, 

While you could easily shake a pursuing gliost in the earlier 
rounds by taking a lot of quick corners, this tactic no longer 
works very well. The fas! est. most persistent of the four 
ghosts is the red one, so take every precaution to avoid a hoi 
chase by this character. If there is a gliost on your tail, head for 
the nearest energy pill. If none is available, an escape tunnel 
(there is only one in this maze) may do the trick. 

COSTINVED ON PAGE 50 




Whilemost gamers get a kick oul of blowing away swarms 
of small aliens like those in Galaga, nothing can compare 
with the sheer pleasure of annihilating this latest menace 
from Williams. It's much easier said than done. 

lb begin with, it takes thirteen hits with "sinibombs" to kill 
Sinistar. You begin the game with none. To load your ship 
with sinibombs, you mine crystals from floating planetoids. 
This is accomplished by rapidly shooting the planetoids until 
they give up the .small, glowing crystals. 

You pick them up by flying over them. Red "worker" aliens 
compete with ynu for the crystals, picking up the ones you 
fail to reach in time and using them to build the Sinistar. 
Deadly warriors (laser-firing tanksj also fly onto the screen 
and disintegrate your ship before you can blink. 



SCORING 

Points are awarded as follows: 

PLANETOIDS 5 

WORKERS 150 

CRYSTALS 200 

WARRIORS 500 

SINISTAR PIECES 500 

DESTROYING SINISTAR 15,000 



crystals, il. will explode and you'U have to move on to a new 
planetoid. Most planetoids are good for a half dozen crystals. 

Workers are harmless, but they will pounce on any loose 
crystals. Blast a departing worker before it exits with the 
stolen crystal. The crystal should then be removed before a 
second worker comes along to snatch it up. If the crystai-soes 
flying Into space, don't bother chasing it. 

Keep your ears open for a high-pitched whistle signalling the 
warriors' impending arrival. The instant a warrior flies onto 
the screen, shoot it before it shoots you. Watch the direction of 
the gun turrets. During the early stages you can avoid the war- 
riors' lasers by hiding behind a large planetoid while continu- 
ing to mine its crystals. 

You should have a full load (twenty) of sinibombs before the 
workers finish building the Sinistar One way to tell if you have 
a full load without having to look up at the top of the screen is 
by listening for a change in the sound made when you pick up 
a crystal. Although the workers need twenty crystals to build 
Sinistar, the completed villain is composed of only thirtejen 
pieces. Therefore, if you unleash a full load on him, only 65% 
of them will have to find their target to destroy Simslar. 



HOW TO KILL SINISTAR 

When SinLstar is completed, it will announce its entry with a 
loud, "\ live!" Check the radar .screen to see if Sinistar's in 
scanner range. It will appear as a yellow bUp outside the cen- 



Be quick, i'ick up each rryslal before 
the workers gel to il . Fly circles around 
warriors and blast Ihem before their gun 
turrets swing your way, Get your ship 
loaded with sinibomlw Iwfore the 
workers can complete their little pro- 
ject. 

As the game begins, you will find your 
ship on a planetoidless screen. Fly in any 
direction until you reach a planetoid. 
The most efficient method for mining 
crystals is to position your ship as close 
to the planetoid as possible and to hold 
the fire button down. At first your shots 
will have no effect. Soon, though, small 
crystals will begin to come out. Do not 
stop firing. Fly your ship over them 
while continuously zapping the quiver- 
ing planetoid. When a planetoid is out of 



"Sinisfar is made 
of 1 3 pieces. If 
/ou drop a full 
load of sinibombs, 
onl/65%haveto 
find f heir target 
to destroy him." 



tral box which represents the .screen 
itself. Vbur ship will be a second yellow 
blip. If you spot Sinistar on the radar 
screen, or if it Iwgins to shout, "Run 
coward, run!" unload some of those sini- 
bombs. DON 'T WAFT FOR SINISTAR TO 
APPEAR BEFORE FIRING SINIBOMBS! 
Release half of your bombs by tapping 
the bomb button with your second or 
third finger while continuing to hold 
down the regular fire button with your 
index finger. This will make it easier to 
defend yourself against warriors which 
will be harrassing you throughout. The 
bombs that find their way to Sinistar will 
slt)w him down. This gives you a chance 
to replenish your supply of sinibombs 
through continued mining. Keep one eye 
on the radar, though, so you'll be able to 
sidestep Sinistar when he does arrive on 
the screen. 



W V!OE(> (JAMES FLAYER 




4s you circle Simsiar and drop bombs, keep firing at the warriors. Drop the minimum number of bombs you need to kill Sinisfar. 



Onceyou'vemanaged to replenish most of the bombs fired at 
Sinistar in the initial foray, it is not too difficult to finish him 
off. If Sinistar does appear on screen and is closing in fast, cir- 
cle him as you release the sinibombs. Watch him die. 

It is at this point that you can greatly increase your chances 
ofsuccess in thesecond or "worker" zone. ^yCir'mg only the 
exact number of sinibombs needed to destroy Simstar, you will 
be able to bring as many as eight or nine unused bombs with 
you as you warp to the new zone. You'll need them. Because 
the number and speed of your enemies increases with every 



new zone you enter, you will have to spend more of your time 
defending your ship and less time gathering crystals. There- 
fore, any bombs you can bring with you will save you valuable 
time and help to increase your score. 

Finally, never lose your last ship with half a load of smi- 
bombs on board. If you see that you have only one ship 
remaining and it s a long way off until your next bonus ship, 
unleash your bombs. Many will hit the unfinished Sinibtar, 
delaying its completion, and giving you more time to mine a 
few crystals. Now play, coward! 



MINIMUM SCORE POTENTIAL 
120,000 





« » , • 




Irfcte" 



M#w Tft) IPlkw F(Dme^er 



Leo Daniels has the highest 
score in the world on Aste- 
roids-40, 101, 910 points. 
He holds the world record 
for Millipede (1,747,891), Aste- 
roids Deluxe (2,269,230), Food 
Fight (3,327,000), Journey 
(89,000) and his high score on 
Robotron is more than 169 million 
points! Leo Daniels is a man who 
has played for 36 consecutive 



hours on a single quarter. The 
man is awesome. 

As vice-president of Light Years 
Amusement in Wrightsville 
Beach, North Carolina, Leo has 
discovered a number of simple 
tricks and techniques that enable 
him to score millions of points 
and win as many as 99 free 
games. Now, for the first time in 
print, Leo tells you his secret tips. 



« VIDEO GAUESPLAi-ER 




Warn 4® fe© giiim(Bg ©]iiir©Mp(e§li3 
mlloim jp®aimlls alt Mm^tl 




THE TRICK: How to get unlimited lives 
HOW IT'S DONE: You must play two players. Play the first 
player normally until you die. When the second player starts, 
move Jr. to the far right side of the starting platform with one 
footcompletely off the edge. (Youmust be able to jump straight 
up without grabbing the vine.) Wait until a blue trap comes 
down the apple vine. When it reaches the bottom, jump! You 
must hit the water the same time the trap does. The screen will 
go blank, then read, "PLAYER ONE." Now player one will have 
his same score and same amount of men, but he will have 
returned to level one. 



THE TRICK: How to get seven men 

HOW IT'S DONE: You must play two players. Lose all of 



your Jrs. on the first player on purpose. On your last Jr. on 
player two, jump into the water at the same time the blue trap 
falls. The screen will read "GAME OVER PLAYER ONE." but 
player one will come back to life with seven Jrs. 




THE TRICK: 1000 point "rainbow" bonus 
HOW IT'S DONE: Leave the far left row of invaders alone. 
As the aliens walk across the screen, the top invader is one step 
ahead of the others. Move slightly ahead of the others. Move 
slightly ahead of the entire row and shoot them out from the top 
to the bottom. This is difficult, but you can do it. When you 
shoot the last one, the bottom alien in the left row, there will be 
a rainbow and you will be awarded 1000 points. 



43 



THE TRICK: Make all the creatures stop firing at you for the 
entire game 

HOW IT'S DONE: On the first screen, shoot all the aliens 
except for the bumblebee on the bottom left side. For the next 15 
minutes, let it fly around you and dodge all the shots. After 15 
minutes it will stop firing altogether. Let it pass by four times 
and then shoot it. For the rest of the game, no enemies will fire 
on you. 




THE TRICK: 2,000 point "Zowie" bonus 
HOW IT'S DONE: Shoot everything on the screen except for 
one lander. Follow thai lander until he picks up a humanoid. As 
the lander flies to the top of the .screen, shoot him and let the 
humanoid fall. You must catch the humanoid at the exact 
instant he is touching the ground. If you get it right, the screen 
will black out for a second and reappear with a burst of colors 
and other decorations commemorating your success. 



JJack tte Qmmt 



THE TRICK: Win 99 free games 

HOW IT'S DONE: Simply jump on Jack's house and keep on 

jumping until you die. On your next game, 99 free games will 

appear. 




THE TRICK: Win 40 free games 

HOW IT'S DONE: You must first reach level 27. Then let all 
your men die and insert two quarters in the machine. Now start 
your game at level 26 and work your way to level 27 again. 
When you get to 27, get the last two digits of your score to 11, 
then lose all your men on purpose again. Enter your initials as 
quickly as possible and don't touch anything else. When the 
high scores disappear and it .spells out "Tempest," 40 free games 
will click up. 




THE TRICK: Make the rocks pass right through you 
HOW IT'S DONE : Sit on the lower left corner of the screen, 
as far in the corner as you can get without disappearing. Rotate 
and fire. The rocks will pass through you and bullets won't 
touch you. 




THE TRICK: (iel 795,000 bonus points \ 
HOW IT'S DONE: This one's for pros onlj. When your score 
reaches 1,080,000, spin the trac-ball. You will be able to pick a 
bonus of anywhere from 15.000 to 795,000 points. 




THE TRICK: Make tanks stop shooting fireballs 
HOW IT'S DONE: On any wave that has tanks, shoot 
everything but one tank. Let this lone tank shoot 21 times. It 
will then shoot one last shot and wind down. It will bob up and 
down and stop firing. This is good to know if you want to take a 
break during a marathon game. 




THE TRICK: Score over 200 million points 
HOW IT'S DONE: On wave six, Joust all the knights except 
one. Let this one get caught by the lava troll. Now position 
yourself on the bottom floating rock or platform. The 'fcridac- 
tyles will start coming out. Simply face the direction they come 
from and they will run into your joust every time. You can build 
up over 1000 extra men. 



Pac-Mnii 



THE TRICK: Win 64 free games 

HOW IT'S DONE: You must be able to complete the I37th 
board. Beware! This board is different from any other. All the 
characters will be right side up, but the board will be upside 
down. However, the dots will all be in the right places. Once 
you've cleared this board, 7^% of the time, the machine will 
click up 64 free games and give you a borderless maze of dots. 

Note to all players: Some machines have been repro- 
grammed to prevent these tricks. The lips for Tem- 
pest, Joust, Asteroids and Jack the Giant 
Killer may not work on modiried games. 



« VIDEO GAMES PUYBR 



0^ 



w 



imwmG 
AommmER 




Shown Lysowski is 13 
yeors ofd and a 9th grader 
who lives in Desert Hot 
Springs, Cofifornio. Shawn 
loves to invent gomes and 
pfavs Front line, Q* Bert, 
ana Popeye os much as he 
eon. He olso likes 
swimm/ng and bosebali. 




THE YOUNG 
ADVENTURER 

OBJEaOFTHEGAME 

To touch the Holy Chalice. 

RULES OFTHE GAME 

1. The "Young Adventurer" represents 
the player in the game. 

2. The "Young Adventurer" can move 
up or down rope^, jump and walk on 
flat surfaces. 

3. lb kill the Barracudas and Piranhas, 
the "Young Advent^irer" has to get 
the knife. The hotdt will not work on 
them. 

4. The hook is to kill the Crocodile. The 
"Young Adventurer" has to hit the 
Crocodile eight times before it is 
killed, then must retrieve the key. 

5. The key is to c^en the door where 
the Chalice is kept. 

i. The "Young Adventurer" cannot kill 
the bear claw traps w ith the hook , 



key, or knife. Neither can he cut the 
ropes. 

7. The bear claw traps cannot swim in 
the water. 

8. Once the bear claw t. ips have g\ 'e 
up or down the ropes, they'll fall 
until they hit a surface. The "Young 
Adventurer" can jump over them. 

9. None of the monsters can kill each 
other. The fish will swim helter 
skelter until they reach the bottom, 
like the Aliens in Space Invaders. 
The Crocodile will swim around the 
stone in the water If any of the 
monsters touch the "Young 
Adventurer," the "Young 
Adventurer" gets killed. If the 
"Young Adventurer" gets killed, he 
starts on the long rope by the door. 

10. To get to the Chalice, the "Young 
Adventurer" must get the key and 
open the door to the Chalice Room 
and swing and jump from the ropes, 
avoiding bear claw traps, which can 
climb up ropes, and avoiding falling 
on the spikes. 



11. As soon as the "Young Adventurer" 
touches the Chalice, the game starts 
over. Players have three men. 

12. The points according to the 
monsters: 

One Crocodile 300 

One Piranha ,...100 

One Barracuda 20 ea 

Jumping over one Bear Claw 

TVap lOea 

Touching the Chalice 500 

If the player gets a thousand points 
he gets a free man. There will 
always be six (6) Bear Claw TVaps, 
two (2) Barracudas, one (I) Piranha 
and one (l) Crocodile in each game. 



Weprint a reader's game in each 
issue and pay $25 to the author 
Send artwork, description ofgame^ 
photo and self-addressed stamped 
envelope to: Games From Readers, 
Video Games Player, 888 7th Ave., 
Nm York, NY 10106. 



45 



9^jmf 



Galaga is played in stages. In the "attack" stages, aliens 
come in groups of eight or more, fire a few missiles and fly into 
formation . Once they are assembled, they peel off from the 
group to shower you with missiles. During the "challenging •• 
stages, five groups of non-firing aliens allow you to blast away 
without fear of losing a ship. 

SCORING 

While in formation, blue aliens are worth 50 points and red 
are worth 80. These values are doubled if the aliens are in 
flight when shot. The green flagships in 
the top row are good for 150 points in 
formation and 400 if wasted in flight. 
The flagships require two shots to die. 

It is in the challenging stages where 
you can really earn hefty bonuses. You 
are awarded 1000 points and up (depend- 
ing on the stage you're on) for destroy- 
ing a group of eight aliens. If you elimi- 
nate all five groups you will receive a 
whopping 10,000 points. 



''Red aliens will 
head off the 
bottom of the 

screen. The blue 
oneswifftryto 
ram /our ship 
from below/' 



DOUBLE SHIPS 

Every so often a flagship will swoop 
down toward your ship. It will send 
down a tractor beam. If you enter the 
beam, your ship will swirl up to join the 
flagship in formation. To get a double 
ship, wait until most, if not all, of the 
aliens have been eliminated and for the 

flagship {with captured ship in tandem) ^^^^^_ 

to attack . Avoid the missiles and then 
wait for the alien to complete its loop . When it does, blast it. 
When the alien is destroyed, the captured ship will float down 
to join your current ship, doubling your firing power from two 
on-screen shots at a time to four. 

ATTACK STAGES 

Stage one begins with five groups of non-firing aliens, one 
group at a time, and flying into formation. Group one enters 
from the top center of the screen. The rows then split apart. If 
you remain in the middle, you're liable to miss everything. A 
better tactic is to choose one side and rapidly fire at a whole 
row of enemies as they turn back in toward the center. Then 
head for the left side for group two. 

This group will curve upward from the bottom left corner of 
the screen before looping and heading up the middle. Blast as 
many as you can on the initial curve upward, but then be ready 



to wipe out the entire row as they approach on the downward 
portion of their loop. Group three enters in exactly the same 
way, but from the right side of the screen. 

The fourth group enters at the top center, but instead of 
splitting into two rows, a doubk row of invaders flies toward 
the left edge and then curves up^ward the center. Position 
your ship at the left side of the screen and take out as much of 
the outer row as possible just as it begins to curve inward. 
Handle group five in the same manner and prepare to be 
attacked. 

TVo at a time, the aliens will peel off 
the outer edges and swoop down toward 
your ship while firing three or four mis- 
siles. Concentrate on their flight paths, 
while using peripheral vision to help you 
steer clear of the missiles. If possible, 
destroy the aliens before they get a 
chance to fire. If not, wait until their 
missiles pass and then blast them as they 
finish their loops. Red aliens will head 
off the bottom of the screen. The blue 
aliens will try to come up under your 
ship to ram it from below. 

Blast away at the aliens in formation 
when you get a chance. Although they 
are worth more when diving, your 
chances of surviving the stage will be 
greater if you have fewer attacks to 
endure. 
In stage two, the aliens will bombard 

^ you as they enter the screen and they 

^ will peel off in groups of three. Your 

strategy should remain the same. You will, however, have to 
fire more quickly at the entering aliens, so you'll have time to 
sidestep their missiles. Be sure not to destroy all four flagships 
until one of them has sent down a tractor beam. 

In the third attack stage, the aliens, after completing their 
bombing raids, head straight for your ship kamikaze-style. You 
can usually fool them if you shift your position drastically right 
before they make their dives. This way, the spot they've 
homed in on is the spot you've just vacated. 

CHALLENGING STAGES 

The first of Galaga 's challenging stages is stage three. Like 
the attack stage, five groups of aliens will fly onto the screen. 
But instead of flying into formation, the surviving aliens will 
exit when they have completed their patterns. The key to 
success is to learn these patterns well, so you can dispose of 



45 VIDEO GAMES FLM'ER 












r,"r T;^ 



^ 



With two ships, position yourself right in the center and take out hoth rows of aliens at once. With one ship, move left or right. 



the non-firing creeps before they have a chance to leave. 

Group one will enter in two rows of four aliens, from the top 
center of the screen. The rows begin about an inch apart, but 
by the time they reach the center, they've curved in so that the 
two leading aliens overlap. If allowed to survive, the two rows 
would cross over each other and head off in opposite direc- 



tions. To avoid this, position your ship (or double ship) in the 
exact middle of the screen and time your first shot to meet the 
aliens just as they begin to overlap. If your shots are timed cor- 
rectly, both rows should explode right into your line of fire. 
(See illustration) 
Remember-kill or be killed. 



MINIMUM 



SCORE 
65,000 



POTENTIAL: 



ARSWUmESOMS? 

oujust sc-ored 85,000 on Asteroids and you feel great. Then you score 400 on Breakout and you feel lousy But 
actually 400 is pretty good for Breakout. Since video game scores are not standardized, there has never been a 
way to tell how the score of one ganie compares with another. . . until now. The gawes and scores on these pages 
are not based on the "casual " player They are based on hardcore, dedicated, obsessed video fanatics. Like you. 




HOME VIDEO GAMES 


AVERAGE 


GOOD 


AWESOME! 




ASTEROIDS (Atari) 


40,000 


70,000 


200,000 




ASTROSMASH (Mattel) 


200,000 


500,000 


850,000 




ATLANTIS (Imagic) 


100,000 


125,000 


200,000 




BURGERTIME (Mattel) 


75,000 


150,000 


250,000 




COMMUNIST MUTANTS (Starpath) 


12,500 


200,000 


999,999 




COSMIC ARK (Imagic) 


10,000 


17,500 


25,000 




COSMIC AVENGER (Coleco) 


15,000 


40,000 


73,000 




DEFENDER (Atari) 


1,000,000 


3,000,000 


14,000,000 




DEMOLITION HERBY (Telesys) 


4,000 


8,000 


40,000 




DEMON AHACK (Imagic) 


85,000 


110,000 


130,000 




DONKEY KONG [Coleco) 


100,000 


300,000 


780,000 




EMPIRE STRIKES (Parker) 


2,000 


4,000 


6,983 




FAST FOOD (Telesys) 


2,500 


5,000 


8,400 




FREEDOM FIGHTERS (Odyssey) 


200 


350 


9,999 




FR066ER (Parker] 


1,000 


1,500 


3,201 




JAWBREAKER (Tigervision) 


15,000 


22,000 


30,000 




K.C/SKRAZY CHASE (Odyssey] 


500 


1,250 


5,000 




KABOOM (Actlvision] 


3,000 


10,000 


999,999 




LOCK 'N' CHASE (Mattel) 


20,000 


50,000 


100,000 




MISSLE COMMAND (Atori) 


30,000 


80,000 


200,000 




MOUSETRAP (Coleco) 


100,000 


400,000 


1,000,000 




NEXAR (Spectrovision) 


45,000 


250,000 


700,000 




PAC-MAN (Atari) 


50,000 


100,000 


300,000 




PHOENIX (Atari] 


15,000 


40,000 


73,000 




PICK AXE PHE (Odyssey) 


500 


1,250 


9,999 




PITFALL] (Activision) 


20,000 


40,000 


114,000 




RIVER RAID (Activision) 


15,000 


60,000 


1,000,000 




SPACE INVADERS (Atari) 


50,000 


75,000 


200,000 




STARMASTER (Activision) 


3,800 


3,975 


3,971 




TURMOIL (Fox) 


25,000 


70,000 


110,000 




VENTURE (Coleco) 


150,000 


500,000 


1,200,000 








200,000 


500,000 




ZAXXON (Coleco) 


70,000 





M VIDBO GAMES PLAT^ 



ARCADE GAMES 



AVERAGE 



GOOD 



AWESOME! 



CENTIPEDE 



(Atari) 



100,000 



200,000 



mooo 



DEFENDER 



(Williams) 



200,000 



600,000 



1,500,000 



DONKEY KONG JR. 



(Nintendo) 



350,000 



500,000 



900,000 



FOOD FIGHT 



(Atari) 



1,000,000 



5,000,000 



8,000,000 



GALAGA 



(Midway) 



500,000 



1,000,000 



5,000,000 



JOUST 



(Williams) 



300,000 



500,000 



1,500,000 



JUNGLE HUNT 



(Taito) 



35,000 



70,000 



200,000 



MS.PAC-MAN 



(Midway) 



100,000 



220,000 



250,000 



POPEYE 



(Nintendo) 



100,000 



200,000 



320,000 



POLE POSITION 



(AtoH) 



30,000 



45,000 



64,000 



Q'BERt 



(Gottlieb] 



200,000 



500,000 



1,000,000 



ROBOTRON 



(Williams) 



1,000,000 



1,500,000 



2,000,000 



TEMPEST 



(Atari) 



400,000 



800,000 



1,300,000 



TIME PILOT 



(Centuri) 



250,000 



1,000,000 



2,000,000 



TRON 



(Midway) 



75,000 



150,000 



1,000,000 



TURBO 



(Sega) 



30,000 



50,000 



100,000 



ZAXXON 



(Sega) 



200,000 



500,000 



1,000,000 



COMPUTER GAMES 


AVERAGE 


GOOD 


1 
AWESOMEI 


APPLE PANIC 


(Broderbund) 


100,000 


250,000 


675,840 


AZTEC 


(Datamost) 


500,000 


1,000,000 


1,200,000 


CANYON CLIMBER 


(Datosoft) 


20,000 


30,000 


40,000 


CHOPLIFTER 


(Broderbund) 


15 


25 


64 


CROSSFIRE 


(Sierra On-Line] 


600,000 


1,200,000 


2,770,000 


GORF 


(Roklan) 


15,000 


30,000 


50,000 


JUMPMAN 


(Epyx) 


20,000 


35,000 


60,000+ 


MINER 2049er 


[Big Five) 


15,000 


35,000 


100,000 


SERPENTINE 


[Broderbund) 


500,000 


1,000,000 


5,120,300 


SNEAKERS 


(Sirius) 


3,000 


10,000 


40,000 


SNACK ATTACK 


(Datamost) 


5,000 


20,000 


50,000 


SNOOPER TROOPS #1 


(Spinnaker) 


25hrs. 


20hrs. 


lOhrs. 


SURVIVOR 


(Synapse) 


40,000 


70,000 


110,000 


TUBEWAY 


(Datamost) 


20,000 


70,000 


100,000 


WAYOUT 


(Sirius) 


40 


20 


11 


WIZARD OF WOR 


(Roklan) 


30,000 


70,000 


100,000 


ZAXXON 


(Dotasoft) 


40,000 


62,500 


100,000 



MAGICALEX 

CONTINUED FROM PAGE Stf 

two things both be meaningful. 
VGP: But you're not going to tell us what 
it is? 

AL: 1 sure am not, I could talk about it in 
a general way which would put other 
programmers on the scent of the trail. Or 
I can talk about it in specific way and 
every programmer who reads this will 
know how to do it. It's something I just 
don't want to give up right now. 
VGP: How did you get to be so smart so 
fast? 

AL: I'm a voracious reader— and that's a 
piece of advice. 

VGP: So all the kids who read the maga- 
zine should read voraciously, and find out 
what "voracious" means. 
AL: Right. Find out what voracious 
means before you start reading. 



VGP: So rather than playing video 
games, they should be reading? 
AL: Video games are a lot of fun . I play a 
lot of them and will continue to do so. But 
reading is the best way we have found to 
transmit information from one person to 
another. Read everything. I just read an 
article about this device that lets doctors 
take a patient, run him through this 
machine, and get a three dimensional 
picture of, say, his heart. And they can 
rotate the heart in space, look at it from 
different angles, and even cut it in half. 
Wow! That blows my mind! That's great! 
I read a lot because that's how you find 
out what's going on. Read the video mag- 
azines. Read the audio magazines. Read 
the science magazines. I read it all and 
I'm fascinated by it all. I think that's very 
important— to maintain a .sense of won- 
der and excitement. You shouldn't be 
afraid of the future. D 




MS. PAC-MAN 

CONTINUED FKOM RAGE S9 

If you make it this far, congratulations! 
Your main concern should be surviving 
long enough to reap the 10,000 bonus 
p<)ints accompanying those two bounc- 
ing bananas. Energy pills now last only 
between one-and-a-half and two sec- 
onds, so you won't be gobbling up many 
more ghosts. 

There is, however, one sure way to 
gulp down at least one ghost for each 
energy pill consumed. Rather than wait- 
ing beside an energy pill until a ghost is 
dangerously close and then eating the 
pill, reversing direction, and giving 
chase, you should follow a ghost as 
closely as possible when he rum over the 
pill. This way you get to continue in one 
direction as the gliost reverses and 
heads straight into Ms. Pac-Man's wait- 
ingjaws. 

The fourth maze is fairly open and 
easy to maneuver around with just a few 
exceptions. The escape tunnels, though 
located similarly to those in maze one, 
are shielded by a T-shaped barrier on 
each side of the maze. So it takes a few 
more turns to enter or leave the maze. 
At the top center of the maze there is a 
small niche containing six dots. Since 
t here are only two points of access to 
this area, it is easy to get trapped by two 
ghosts entering simultaneously at both 
ends while you're in the middle. There- 
fore, be extremely careful while clearing 
this section of dots. 

That should give you all the informa- 
tion you need to know to do a job on Ms. 
Pac-Man and amaze your friends. You 
will notice, by the way, that with this 
and other home games, the better you 
are al the game, the better you will 
probably do in the arcade version of the 
game. Ms. Pac-Man the arcade game is 
quite similar to Ms. Pac-Man the Atari 
VCS cartridge. "How Tl) Play Forever" 
(see page 42) will give you another tip 
for Ms. Pac-Man— if you can complete 
the i;i7th lM)ard of the arcade game, the 
Ixiard will turn upside down. But the 
dots will all be in the right place. When 
you clear the board, there is a 75% 
chance you will receive 64 free games. 

Keep an eye out for the 5200 version 
of Ms. Pac-Man. 

MINIMUM SCORE 

POTENTIAL: 

50,000 



so VIWOGAMtXFLMER 



THIRD 



WAVE 



Video Game 



BUYER'S Guide 




DEMOLITION HERBY ^ 

.So you think all drivinj; names are the 
same, eh? Well, here you travel around a 
grid, filling in blocks. Whenever you 
enclose a square it becomes black and 
you get more fuel. Your opponents are 
chase cars that attempt to erase your red 
lines and crash into you. Your goal is to 
black out the entire grid before you run 
out of fueJ . 

Demolition Herby is colorful, fast- 
moving, and addicting. The bright blue 
grid is striking. You can use your joy- 
stick's red button as a gas pedal, to 
quickly escape the cha.se cars. Strategy 
is important here, since you can earn 
bonus points by completing two squares 
with one line or by ramming into the 
chase cars. There's even a two-player 
version in which your opponent controls 
the chase cars. Demolition Hetty is 
similar to Amidar, but twice as good. 

Thlesys, for Atari VCS 



' 2 :' J 






;:.-.V.V.ii.V.vii 



PEPPER II A 

The designers of Pepper// have taken 



By Raymond Diinetrosky 

all the characteristics that make up good 
maze games and added extra touches to 
produce a contest that is exceptional. 
Here, instead of eating dots, you roam 
around "zipping up" rooms. And while 
there are the usual villains to avoid, they 
are unique— roaming eyes and a "zipper 
ripper." As in all good maze games, you 
get to turn the tables and chase the 
monsters, You can also score bonus 
points if you enclose rooms that contain 
prizes. Butbest of all, in Fepper // you 
can travel at will among four different 
mazes. If you complete all four, you 
advance to a level with invisible tracks! 

Pepper n is excellent. There are three 
songs (including the dreary theme from 
the Alfred Hitchcock show) and incredi- 
bly colorful graphics. Each maze has its 
own set of colors. While it's enjoyable to 
play for points, in this game it's fun just 
to watch the mazes as they are colored 
in. Since there's relatively no violence, 
this is one game that can be enjoyed by 
every member of the family. 

Coleco, for ColecoVision 



LOOPING B 

You 're the pilot of a plane in a world 
filled with green drops, twinkle mon- 
sters, bouncing balls, and hot-air bal- 
loons. You must shoot and destroy these 
obstacles. Since the only way to turn 
around is by making a loop, you had 
better navigate carefully. Mo.st of your 
trip will be through rooms full of twisted 



pipes. 

Like the arcade game, Looping is not a 
game you can quickly master. Your plane 
is extremely sensitive to every move- 
ment of the joystick. Numerous crashes 
are inevitable. But how many times have 
you purchased a game only to find you 
could conquer it in a few hours? The 
graphics are colorful and detailed (espe- 
cially the runway and radar tower) and 
the sound effects, which feature a 
roaring plane, are done well. So, while 
younger children may find this game a 
bit frustrating, those interested in a 
challenge will be satisfied. 

Coleco, for ColecoVision 





REVENGE OFTHE BEEFSTEAK 
TOMATOES C 

This game is like Breakout, in reverse. 
You must build three walls over a row of 
tomato plants by catching orange, pink, 
and green bricks. The tomato plants fire 
at you, and you must deal with beefsteak 
tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, and brick- 
eating vines. You score points by 
destroying the various foes, capturing 
and placing bricks, and completing 
walls. 

At first glance this game seems really 
novel. A number of bizarre opponents 
travel around in an attempt to destroy 
you. But the play action, especially in 
the easy versions, quickly becomes dull. 
At times you cannot continue until you 



frnd a particular colored brick . and you 
find yourself sitting around thinking of 
other things . . . like what video game 
you're going to play next. Good title, 
though. 
Fox Video Games, for Atari VCS 




SPACE DUNGEON B + 

In Space Dungeon you travel through 
connecting rooms in an attempt to 
destroy enemies and collect treasures. 
When you've scooped up a few desirable 
prizes, you drop them off into a "collect 
bonus" room. You can sneak a peek at 
the map above the main rooms. 

The most unique feature of Space 
Dungeon is that it takes two joysticks to 
play. Like Robotron, you control move- 
ment with one stick and direction of fire 
with the other. This may be confusing 
for those people who are not adept at 
using the 5200 controllers. Once you get 
the hang of it, though, the game really 
takes off. It's a wild shoot-'em-up 
adventure game. With all of the inter- 
connecting rooms and the many dif- 
ferent levels, there is enough variety 
here to Ia.st you for a while. Add to this 
the above-average graphics and sound 
effects, and you end up with an enjoy- 
able space adventure. 

Atari, for 5200 



to decay them. Your weapon? A tube of 
toothpaste, of course. You have 35 .sec- 
onds to squirt your attackers, If you 
eliminate them, you receive bonus points 
for time and teeth remaining. When you 
reach 2,000 points, you earn an extra 
tooth. 

This game is ingenious! You are 
attacked by everything from cheese- 
burgers to ice cream cones. And the 
graphics are truly outstanding. The 
packets of frencli fries look like they've 
just been served at McDonalds, and you 
can almost taste the sickeningly sweet 
candy canes. Plaque Attack also has 
some great extra features. When the 
junk food reaches one of your teeth, it 
turns bright yellow and disintegrates. 
And you are alerted that your time is 
running low by the toothpaste tube— it 
begins to roll up! Actually, if you strip 
away the great graphics, Plaque Attack- 
is another shoot-"em-up game. But this 
contest Is so clever, you'll quickly feel as 
ifyou're playing something that's 
unique. Oddly, it reminds me of Missile 
Command. 

Activision, for Atari VCS 



and very tough to beat. 

CBS Electronics, for Atari VCS. Also 
for Intellivision. Atari 5200. and Atari 

400/800. 





PLAQUE ATTACK B + 

You must protect a mouth full of teeth 
from various types of food that are trying 



SOLAR FOX B + 

Solar Fox proves you don't have to 
have good graphics to have a good game. 
The field is almost black and white. You 
have a simple airplane shape which flies 
over various configurations of geometric 
blocks. You must touch all the blocks and 
avoid fire from above and below. 

What seems like a simple space game 
actually has depth to it. If you finish a 
wave in less than ten seconds, you get to 
skip a wave. Among the 26 different 
waves are "Challenge Racks," which are 
tests of speed. Succeed in a Challenge 
Rack and you get a secret letter. With six 
secret letters, you learn the secret of 
Solar Fox. This game is straightforward, 
addicting, very much an eye-hand game, 




STRAWBERRY Shortcake 

MUSICAL MATCHUPS A 

There are six Strawberry Land charac- 
ters, each with his own three-piece 
outfit and musical tune. But alas, their 
bodies have become mixed up. and only 
you can put them back together. If you 
succeed, they dance a little jig while 
their theme song plays in the back- 
ground and their names appear beneath 
them. There are six different games. The 
easiest contests allow you to create any 
character you want, while In the more 
difficult games you are given a name or 
melody and you must correctly form a 
specific person. They're all extremely 
colorful and melodic. In fact, never 
before have so many different tunes been 
heard in one VCS cartridge. And one 
look at the Strawberry Land characters 
and you'll be awed by the graphics. 
There's even a smiling sun that .sails 
across the sky to indicate time remain- 
ing. For girls from four to .seven , Straw- 
berry' Shorttake is a dream come true. 
Everyone else— this one isn't made for 

Parker Brothers, for Atari VCS 




ENDURO A 

Imagine this— You're about to begin a 
24-hour race across winding roads. You 



52 VIDEO GAMES PLAYER 



have to pass a predetermined number of 
cars or you'll be disqualified. Yet if you 
give a little too much gas, you cra-sh. So 
keep a close eye on the color of the sky 
(it changes as the race progresses, to 
reflect the time of day), and soar around 
the track. After all, you score is deter- 
mined by the number of mites you travel. 

lb put it simply, Endiiro is the best 
driving game ever created for Atari VCS, 
Your engine roars as you accelerate, and 
your mileage is clocked on an odometer 
that even registers tenths of a mile. 
While it may seem strange to steer with 
a joystick instead of a paddle, your car is 
surprisingly easy to control. The 
designers have cleverly utilized color to 
create skies, which are absolutely 
beautiful. And thanks to the occasional 
trips through snow and fog, the game 
does not become boring. For tho.se of you 
who eixjoy racing car games, this excit- 
ing and challenging contest i.s highly 
recommended. It actually approaches 
Coleco's Thrbo. 

Activision, for Atari VCS 




SKY Skipper C+ 

You are the pilot who must shoot goril- 
las and rescue the animals that they 
have captured. When you shoot a 
gorilla, you have a limited amount of 
time to complete your mission or he'll 
regain consciousness and the animals 
will return to their cages. You must also 
keep an eye on your fuel gauge, and, 
most importantly, don't crash into any 
walls or you'll instantly lose a life. 

Playing the game becomes a measure 
of your ability to travel within narrow 
pathways. If you're into games that 
require a great deal of precision, you 
may enjoy the challenge. Others, how- 
ever, will quickly become frustrated, and 
may find the game repetitive. To the 
designer's credit, whenever you free one 
group of animals, you are presented with 
a different maze, with a new set of 
obstacles, 

Parker Brothers, for Atari VCS 




NOVA Bust b+ 

You must protect four cities that are 
enclosed in capsules. You battle wave 
upon wave of attackers with your lasers 
and bombs. To aid in your defense, you 
are equipped with damage and fuel 
indicators, radar, and a beaming device 
that will temporarily replace destroyed 



capsules. 

In many ways Nova Bla'il is similar to 
Defender This is a scrolling contest in 
which you fly around shooting at numer- 
ous enemies. The graphics are excellent, 
especially the domed cities with their 
clear, vibrating capsules. The special 
effects are equally exciting. When a 
capsule is destroyed, it smashes into 
pieces that fly in every direction. One 
interesting feature of this game involves 
the attackers— only one type of creature 
opposes you at a time, So, if you like 
plenty of shoot-'em-up action, you'll 
have a great time with Nova Blast. And 
since there are slill a limited number of 
quality space games for Intellivision, it's 
a fine addition to your collection. 

Imagic, for Intellivision 



GAME OF THE MONTH 




TRUCKIN' A+ 



If designers are interested in knowing 
what makes an outstanding game, they 
should look at TYuckin '. The game is so 
involved, it is impossible to fully 
describe it here. In brief, there are two 
different games. In the first, you must 
drive through eight cities in the shortest 
time possible. You can choose from 59 
different routes. In the second, your goal 
is to deliver loads of cargo to various 
cities in order to make as much money 
as possible. 

TYuckin ' is one of the most complex 
video games ever produced. The screen 



switches from a view of the road, to a 
gas station, to a rest stop, to charts that 
present vital information. When you are 
travelling on the highway, you simply 
avoid the other vehicles. But a closer 
look reveals a horn which you blow to 
warn other vehicles, scenery represent- 
ing the area in the country you are in, 
and police who catch you when you 
speed. In this game you do more than 
step on the accelerator. In fact, TYuckin' 
is to racing games what Star Raiders is to 
space games. 
Imagic, for Intellivision 




happytrails 



B- 



Happy 7hij7.s is a maze game that is 
unlike any other video game. The dif- 
ference? You control the maze. The 
playfield is divided into square segments, 
with winding paths crossing each seg- 
ment. You control a bounty hunter (a big 
hat with feet). You must arrange the 
maze before your bounty hunter walks 
off the path. On your way, you attempt 
to collect money bags and capture Black 
Bart, the villain. 

You'll either love it or hate it. There's 
a great deal of strategy involved, and 
those of you who enjoy maze games will 
be challenged by the unending number 
of mazes. But the gamer who revels in 
shoot-out action will quickly become 
bored. 

Activision, for IntelUvision 




GORF B + 

The unique feature of this space game 
is that you get four separate missions. 
When you eliminate one wave of oppo- 
nents, instead of challenging a faster 
group of the same creatures, you begin a 
completely different task . The first 
wave, "Astro Battle," closely resembles 
Space Invaders. The second round, 
"Laser Attack," pits you against robot 
ships that are firing lasers. The third 
round, "Space Warp," requires you to 
dodge radiation bombs and destroy new 
robot ships. In the fourth round, "Flag- 
ship" you must avoid fireballs and 
destroy the flagship's internal reactor. 



For the most part, Gorfis another 
shoot-'em-up that tests your reflexes. 
But it will probably hold your interest 
longer than the average space battle, 
since each contest is really four games in 
one. Add to this Coleco's usual quality 
sound effects and graphics (the space 
warp scene which places you in the 
middle of streaking red, orange, and 
yellow lights is particularly outstanding) 
and you end up with a very good game. 

Coleco, for ColecoVision 




robotTank a 

"Excellent," "fantastic," and "incred- 
ible" are not good enough words to 
describe this Battlezone-done. You are 
in the tank, and tanks are all around 
firing, for some reason, big black squares 
at you. You can roll toward them, away 
from them, and turn in circles. The 
scene changes from day to night and the 
weather changes from sun to fug and 
snow. If you've got video-damage, you 
can use your radar scope. 

You will be amazed. Realism— incredi- 
ble. Graphics—terrific. Game play— very 
good. Sound— average. Overall rating- 
Super Wonderful Fun. 

Activision, for Atari VCS 




Jungle Hunt B+ 

Your wife has been kidnapped by 
savages, lb rescue her, you must swing 
on the vines through the Deadly Forest, 



swim past crocodiles in Reptile River, 
leap over boulders in Boulder Field, and 
avoid the spears thrown by the savages 
in the Cannibal Camp. 

Considering the limitations of the VCS, 
this adaptation of the arcade hit is quite 
good. There are four colorful scrolling 
scenes and each setting contains its own 
bunch of obstacles. The cartridge 
includes two versions, one for beginnere 
and one for experts, so every member of 
the family can expect to be challenged. 
As for the graphics, don't expect the 
detail of the arcade game, but all in all, 
they're satisfactory. At least you can 
readily tell what everything is. And 
there are some features that are rarely 
seen in a VCS game. For example, when 
you kill a crocodile, the points that you 
have earned appear on the screen. This 
game is not quite up to the level of 
Activision 's Pitfall, but enough of the 
flavor of the arcade hit has been main- 
tained to make it a winner. 

At^ri. for Atari VCS 




Cakewalk B- 

You're a baker who has to catch cake~s 
that are travelling along six conveyor 
belts. If a pastry falls, ajanitor cleans up 
the mess, When enough cakes have been 
boxed you earn a coffee break . 

Cakewalk is a fast-moving contest that 
will really test your strategic thinking. 
You can freeze one conveyor belt at a 
time, but you still must deal with five 
rows full of rapidly approaching goodies, 
There are 16 variations, which allow you 
to choose between such options as fast- 
moving bakers, faster conveyer belts, 
and bakeshops filled only with dancing 
gingerbread men. There are different 
types of cakes, even cakes with candles, 
and when they drop they turn into 
mush . lb break up the monotony, there 
are deadly knives and forks. 

CommaVid, for Atari VCS 



54 VIIXO GAMES PUYES 




Siarfing with our next issue, 
Video Games Player will 
become Computer Games. 
The editorial package you 
hold in your hands will not 
be substantially changed. 
We'll still have oil the news, all 
the clues to beat your favorite 
arcade gomes, and reviews 
off fie lofesf home video 
games. But now we're also 
jam-packing our pages with 
news, clues, reviews 
and interviews in the field of 
computer gomes. Even more 
for your money. Stick with us- 
we're hot and getting hotter! 



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ONE ON ONE 

By Michael Blanchet 
DRACULA (Imagic, for Inteilivision) PITFALL! ( Activision , for Intellivision) 




UNLIKE THE MOVIES AND BOOK, DRACULA FOR INTELLIVISION IS NOT A 
"scary" game. It's actually quite funny -a tongue in cheek contest in which the player, 
turned vampire, must creep through town in search of victims. 

The game begins in an English graveyard. "Drac" emerges from his tomb and floats to 
the sidewalk in bat form. In each round there are an increasing number of available victims. 
Drac must find them all, bite them and return to his coffin before the timer reads six a.m. 



To flush out a victim, Drac just knocks 
on the nearest door. If someone emerges, 
Drac has to chase him . He can do so 
either in bat or man form. As a bat he's 
capable of swift flight, but also a sitting 
duck for the vulture that's stalking him. 
When he wishes to bite his victim, Drac 
must revert back to human form, At this 
point you can either bite him or turn him 
into a zombie, which in turn can be dis- 
patched against the bobbies that are hot 
on your trail. 

The game really heats up when these 
cops start walking the beat. While chas- 
ing his victims, he must also avoid the 
cops and the wooden stakes they're toss- 
ing at him. If a stake hits him, the Count 
is temporarily immobilized and must 
wait for it to disintegrate before he can 
move. 

Dracda is best when played by two 
people. In this mode the contestants 
alternate control of the vampire. One 
plays the Count while the other controls 
the victim. When a victim is turned into 
a zombie, he can be used to attack the 
cops, In the one-player version you may 
find it difficult to use a zombie to any 



advantage. 

Dracula's greatest asset is that it's a 
challenging game that's also humorous 
and lighthearted. One of the nicest 
touches is the Count's lumbering walk. 

Graphically, Dracuh offers a wealth of 
detail. Thunder rolls, lightning bolts 
dance across the sky. and there are even 
cracks in the sidewalk and puddles along 
the side of the road. 

Compared to most Intellivision games, 
Dracula is easy to learn. Just select the 
difficulty level and you're off. As 
expected, Drac is a little tough to con- 
trol, Regardless, this game Is as much 
fun to watch as to play. 

Graphically, there's little difference 
between VCS PitfaU! and its Intellivision 
counterpart. As an Atari cartridge, it 
looks top-notch in light of other VCS 
games. In the Intellivision format, 
though, the graphics are inferior to 
recent Imagic offerings, not to mention 
some of Mattel's own stuff. The 
mechanics of play also remain 
unchanged, and this detract,s slightly 
from the game. As a VCS cartridge, Pit- 
fall! is amazingly complex, but as an 



Intellivision cartridge it loses ground to 
other recent fantasy adventure offerings. 

The objwtt of the game is to collect a.s 
many of the 32 treasures as possible 
within 20 minutes. The jungle spans 255 
screens, connected end to end. 

Finding the treasures is ea.sy. It's get- 
ting to them that's difficult. Ifpon exit- 
ing Ihe first screen, "Pitfall Harry" 
encounters a never-ending trail of haz- 
ards: tar pits, rolling logs, crocodiles, 
fires and snakes. These can be avoided 
by running leaps and swings across con- 
veniently placed vines. Easy enough to 
do with a joystick, but another story 
entirely with the Intellivision disc con- 
troller. That darn disc seems to contra- 
dict everything logical about moving a 
game character. 1 found it quite difficult 
to coordinate the functions of running 
and jumping in unison, This can make 
the game a frustrating experience. 

If you're looking for pure adventure. 
Pitfall! might be the way to go. But since 
It was originally made for the Atari VCS, 
don't expect to get bowled over For 
treasure hunters who prefer to stray 
from the beaten path, buy Dracula. 



56 VII^X) GAMES PLAi'ER 



ONE ON ONE 



UXXOH (Coleco, for ColecoVision) ZAXXON (Datasoft, for Atari 400/800) 




LIKE COIN-OP ZAXXON, THE COLECO AND DATASOFT VERSIONS ARE 
broken into four battles. The first and third stages involve flying over a heavily fortified 
floating rock. Between each stone youll encounter a fleet of enemy jets. Either kill or be 
killed. At the end of the second asteroid youll face Zaxxon, the missile-spewing robot. You 
can either destroy the robot with six well-placed shots or simply survive the encounter by 
destroying or dodging his missiles he fires at you. Whatever the outcome, the round will 



end at this point and you'll find yourself 
back at the front end of another fortress. 

As these two Zaxxons are played on 
two different typex of hardware, there is 
no point in telling you to buy one over 
the other. However, it is interesting to 
see the differences and similarities in the 
two games and note how the Coleco and 
Datasoft designers translated the arcade 
hit into the home format. 

First off, neither game fully captures 
the feel of the arcade game. That is just 
impossible. You don't have that big pistol 
grip at home, the high-resolution moni- 
tor, or the booming arcade speakers. But 
given these limitations, both Coleco and 
Datasoft have given us admirable 
translations. If you own a ColecoVision 
or an Atari computer, you will not be 
disappointed with the job they have 
done with Zaxxon. The Coleco game is 
their best selling cartridge to date and 
Datasoft's computer game Zaxxon is 
number one on the Softsel list of all cur- 
rent computer games. As Zaxxon's 
three-dimensionality revolutionized 
arcade games, it is doing the same for 
home games. At the same time, the 



flaws of arcade Zaxxon, the difficulty in 
estimating height and distance, are 
found in both home games. 

The games are not identical. One look 
at the photos above shows that the Data- 
soft version fills almost the entire screen 
while the Coleco game occupies a nar- 
rower diagonal strip. Everything appears 
larger in the computer game, including 
your ship. That doesn't necessarily mean 
the computer game is better. In the Col- 
eco game, your smaller ship gives you 
extra reaction time, maneuverability, 
and makes it easier to slip through the 
force fields that guard the fortresses. But 
the scale on the Datasoft game more 
closely approximates the arcade Zaxxon. 

Coleco makes up for it in spectacular 
graphics. The fortresses are works of 
art, armed to the teeth. They have taken 
special care to recreate the missile silos 
from the arcade game, and have added a 
new enemy— dome shaped robots that 
shoot missiles at you. My only complaint 
is the way the field scrolls. Instead of 
zooming along, your jet sputters and 
jumps from place to place. The Datasoft 
game, though lacking in some of the 



graphic detail, scrolls very smoothly. 

The Atari computers, fortunately, 
accept "specialty" joysticks, and you're 
going to need one. A big bathandle will 
give you a better feel of a plane— the 
short staff on the Coleco controller Just 
doe.sn't make it. when you do battle 
with Zaxxon himself, you have to punch 
off shots rapid-fire. You may find your- 
self banging your Coleco controller 
against the furniture to do this. A few 
companies are now starting to make con- 
trollers for the ColecoVision, and you 
might want to pick one up. Keep in 
mind, by the way, when you plan your 
video game budget, the Coleco's Zaxxon 
costs nearly twice as much as the other 
Coleco games. I suppose those added 
graphics cost quite a bit to put in. 

This is not a battle of "video game ver- 
sus computer game." ColecoVision can 
accept game cartridges as complex as 
24K, which is more than many home 
computers. A game played on a com- 
puter is not necessarily better than a 
game played on a video game .system. 
Rather, it is a matter of how each game 
designer interprets the game. 




COUI^ g [_PBXSHRRC HHZZ \ 



How do they malce it? 

How do we use it? 

By Josh Martin 

What is a video game without 
sound? Your ears tell you if your 
guns have fired, whether you 
hit your target and when the 
monsters are coming. There are 
trumpets of victory and the 
agony of defeat, not to mention 
other nifty squeaks, squeals, 
screams and, on occasion, voices. Sound is the unsung 
hero of the video game. 

Somewhere in the wilds of New Jersey is a group of 
engineers and technicians, gathered like scientists, 
thinking up sounds you have never heard, for games that 
no one has ever played. This is the design team of Activi- 
sion . Elaborate precautions are taken to ensure secrecy at 
this lah. Even a simple phone call from the outside must 
get special clearance from a separate office in New York. 
Company officials strictly limit outvside contact for the 
engineers and technicians: "They don't disturb them for 
any reason," said an amazed secretary. "They're serious, 
too." 

In this quiet atmosphere, designers work on sound 
effects for explosions, rockets and symphony orchestras. 
As long as there have been video games, there have been 
sounds to listen to while playing. Of course, back in the 
early days, those sounds were pretty much limited to the 
beep of a moving cursor as it hit the edge of a playing 
field. 

Now, after years spent developing graphics, the Activi- 
sion game designers and others are going to work on 

Can you nome the gomes that belong with these sounds? 
See the end of this article for the answers. 

M VIDEO GAMES PLAYES 



CHEAU 



(said softly) 




C CHISHHHHHH h 



BAAAP 





• •••• ••• 



• •••• ■•• 

• •••• ••• 



mMMM 



BAAAP BAAP 





mum 
wmm 



soundtracks, to make what you hear as 
good as what you see. The results are 
audible in home and arcade games: better 
music, realistic action sounds, and high- 
quality voice synthesis. 

Case in point: Pong, admittedly a 
pioneer game, used an effect that 
sounded more like a beeping radar screen 
than the bouncing tennis ball it was sup- 
posed to represent. But the ball in Activi- 
sion's Tennis (Atari VCS) generates 
authentic "thwacks"when it's whacked 
with a racket. 

In the arcades, sound has also been 
evolving for the better. Who could forget 
the gimmicky explosions in Space 
Invaders^ They sounded more like Uttle 
electronic pops— hardly what you'd 
expect from an exploding space ship. In 
Zaxxon, however, the devastation done 
to enemy fuel tanks and rockets is often 
realistic enough to make you want to dive 
for cover. {And let's not forget Sub-Roc, 
whose designers didn't forget impre,ssive 
sound effects when dreaming up those 
razzle-dazzle 3-D graphics.) 

Activision's Dolphin demonstrates the 
most enterprising and innovative 
exploitation of sound so far. Many games 
warn of impending danger with an appro- 
priately timed noise, but this one helps 
out with varying sonic cues — dif- 



"The goal is 
sound realism— a 
car crash In which 

you feel the 

twisted metal, an 

explosion that 

rocks you back 

from the controls." 



ferences in the sound's pitch signal the 
safest direction in which to swim to avoid 
the killer octopus. Designing such effects 
is obviously even more challenging— and 
sometimes as much fun— as playing the 
game itself, according to some program- 



mers. 

Garry Kitchen is one of three brothers 
who design games for Actlvision. Sound 
has become a new challenge for this video 
veteran. "I don't think I've done as much 
with sound as 1 can," he says. "It's still 
mostly support for graphics." 

"You put sound in and take it out as you 
design your game," Kitchen adds. "You 
have to consider that the sound must fit 
into the memory that's available. It's a 
delicate balance between making things 
good and making them fit." 

For Mark TYirmell, a game designer 
with Sirius {Beer Run, Sneakers, Thr- 
moil, Fast Eddie) soundtracks are the 
resuttof a lot of testing. "It's an intricate 
process," he says. "Sounds are made up 
of numbers in a computer, It often starts 
(>n a random basis." 

Making that random sound perfect 
takes time, experience, and money. 
Suzanne Ciani, the musician and elec- 
tronic effects specialist whose work can 
be heard in Bally's Xenon pinball game, 
works 12 to 18 hours a day, with an array 
of 28 synthesizers. This custom-built 
equipment is expensive— one synthesizer 
can cost $60,000-and so is Ciani's tal- 
ent. A Ciani soundtrack will cost as much 
asS25,000. 

Even the shortest soundtrack can take 



HOW DO YOU MAKE A SOUND? 



There are hard sounds and soft 
sounds, representing different fre- 
quencies and sound-wave patterns. 
Hard sound waves are jagged and look 
like sawteeth. As a number pattern 
(which is how sound programmers 
create it), a hard sound might read 
1,2,3,1,2,3. This pattern can be used 
to create a motorcycle noise. 

Another type of hard sound is 
created by square-wave systems, 
which sets up number patterns like 
1,1,3,3,1,1,3,3. The visual pattern is 
like a light being turned on and off. A 
thunder clap can be made by using 
square-wave noise. 

A soft sound creates a wiggly sound 
wave that can be seen in a number 
pattern like 1,2,3,2,1.2,3,2. This is 
used to simulate footsteps or gentle 
noises. 

In Q'bert, the sound programmer 
started at a computer terminal by typ- 
ing in numbers, which were turned 



into electrical power in a Digital Ana- 
logue Converter (DAC). A DAC can 
produce up to 256 different voltage 
levels, so the programmer can type in 
numbers ranging in size from I to 256. 
Then the programmer determined the 
speed at which the numbers change, 
which is the speed of running through 
different voltage levels. This deter- 
mines the resulting sound frequency. 

Howard Delman, a former hardware 
designer with Atari who was responsi- 
ble for Asteroids, explains how an 
explosion is created: 

"An explosion is a random selection 
of sound frequencies. It starts off very 
loud and then falls off. The way to 
make one explosion different from 
another is to select different frequen- 
cies. The sounds are all made by 
selecting a group of frequencies using 
a Random Noise Generator, 

"The Random Noise Generator cir- 
cuit creates a wide spectrum of fre- 



quencies simultaneouisly, creating a 
hissing sound— 'white' noise. Another 
circuit selectively eliminates certain 
frequencies; it is a controllable filter, 
And a third circuit controls the volume 
of the signal. When an explosion is 
started, this third circuit allows the 
frequency to pass through at full vol- 
ume, and then very quickly decays the 
amplitude. We can re-start the sound, 
however, to make a complex explo- 
sion." 

An explosion for one of the big rocks 
in Asteroids uses lower frequencies, 
hence the rumbling noise. A spaceship 
uses higher frequencies. The only 
software programming involves four 
choices of explosion frequency cir- 
cuits, to cover the different size rocks 
and the spaceships. By comparison, 
each sound you hear in Q*ben. is a 
different software program, and there 
are about 25 small programs in the 
game. 



so VIDEO CAJHESPLAYEIt 



weeks or even months to produce. In 
TVirmeil's Turmoil, a Fox game introduced 
last November, tKere is a tune at the end 
of play which is totally mathematically 
generated and synthesized. According to 
Tlirniell. the music, which lasts 35 sec- 
onds, took over 70 hours of studio time to 
produce. 

Sound is broken down into several cate- 
gories. First there is real sound which you 
can hear in your everyday experience, 
like a car horn or a dog barking. Some- 
times, soundtracks will use tapes with 
real sounds. But more often, the sounds 
you hear while playing a video game are 
mathematically generated and measured 
by frequency. Synthesized sound, created 
by machines, registers as numbers on a 
dial in a game designer's studio. 

Game designers consider three types of 
synthesized sound: high frequency, low 
frequency, and white noi.se. White noise 
is created with a random number genera- 
tor, switching frequencies very fast. It is 
often used for sounds like explosions or 
footsteps. Game designers who work on 
soundtracks soon become versed in fre- 
quency numbers and the sounds they rep- 
resent. "I can pretty much tell what a 
series of numbers will .sound like," says 
Kitchen. 

The sophisticated use of sound in Q* 



bert provides indication of where 
soundtracks are going. Sound is used to 
give the characters personality, It is also, 
in its own way, communicating to play- 
ers. "Q*bert is not trying to say anything 
understandable," says a Gottlieb pro- 
grammer who helped develop the game. 
"The sound is used to provide clues and 
enhance effects. It gives you a clue about 
what's coming up in the game." 

There are limits to sound. While home 
games can use better quality, arcade 
games will continue to rely on graphics. 
As one sound programmer put it, "In a 
war environment like the arcades, it's 
hard to hear auythingy So in an arcade 
game, explosions are just about the only 
sound that matters, because they are 
about the only noises which can rise 
above the din. 

Ed Rutberg, who worked on designing 
Asteroids and Battlezone, says the arcade 
environment doesn't allow for sophisti- 
cated sounds like voice synthesis or 
player- produced music. "Arcade applica- 
tions have to wait until we have total 
environment games," he says. Such 
games would be able to deal with four 
senses; sight, hearing, touch and .smell. 

For now, however, the main goal is 
realism; a car cra.sh in which you [eel the 
twisted metal, a rocket that makes the 



hair on your neck stand up, a bomb explo- 
sion that rocks you back from the con- 
trols. As the graphics and sounds become 
more realistic, we care more about win- 
ning the game. You have to rescue that 
human, not just some blip on a screen. 
There is more riding on it. And if you 
think today's games sound tough, wait 
until next year! 



BEHER SOUND 
FOR HOME GAMES 

Your TV speaker is very small and 
the sound is of low quality. But you 
can improve the sound by sending it 
through the speakers of your .stereo. 
Recoton makes a device that plugs into 
your TV earphone jack to make your 
TV sound, video recorder sound, or 
video game sound come out .your 
sUireo speakers. The sound will be 
"simulated" stereo and you must keep 
both the TV and stereo on at the same 
time. Write or call Recoton at: 46-23 
Crane St. , Long Island City, NY llIOl, 
(212) 392-6442. 




L 



The sounds on the first page were; A. Tti*; spidpr 
in Centipede. B. A Vad^r in Space Invaders, C. 
The Qix in Qix, D. lUrbo car driving. E. Aste- 
roids ship firing, F. Fleas droppinj} in Cen- 
tipede. 6. THE END in Mis.slle Commaod, H. 



Pac-Man. I. Right before you lihift in Gran 
Prix. J. Galaga bugs dropping bombs, K. Col- 
oring of a Qlx box, L A Fuse burning in Qix. M. 
Point couni of mushrooms in Centipede, N. 
Frog hctpping in Progfier Sounds ixime courtesy 



"f Defending ibe Galaxy: The Complete Hand- 
b(H)k orVideu (iaming. edited by Michael Rubin 
Available for $iM at bookstores or from TViad 
Publi.shing Company, 1110 NW Sth Ave, , Suite C, 
Gainesville. PL 32601, Add SI for shipping. 



Computer Game 

BUYER'S Guide 




WIZPLUS B 

Wizardry and its sequel, The Knight Of 
Diamonds, are two of the most popular 
fantasy adventures for the Apple. But 
they take months to play and can get 
downrijjhi frustrating when you lose a 
favorite character. Wizplus is a utility 
that speeds up the game play. Characters 
that are dead, paralyzed or poisoned can 
be restored to prime condition. They can 
be given weapons and gold. They can 
even have their experience level and hit 
points increased. The maps included in 
the user's guide show the locations of 
secret doors and magic objects, The 
result; you can telescope months of Wiz- 
ardry into one weekend, 

Datamost, for Apple 



By Shay Addams and Martin Bass 



building by running horizontally across 
each floor while avoiding guards in 
elevators. When you reach the top of the 
building, you're rewarded with one line 
of an encoded message. After writing it 
down, you resume the game, this lime 
starting your climb from the second 
floor. After each trip to the top, you get 
another piece of the message. 

This is a neat game. Winning requires 
both coordination (avoiding the guards) 
and thought {decoding the message). At 
$19.95, it's a genuine bargain. 

Penguin, for Apple. 



SPY'S Demise b+ 

Spy 's Demise Is one of those games you 
just can't stop playing. The goal is to get 
your man to the top of a twelve-story 





Mastertype a 

They're coming at you. Unless you fire 
quickly, your ship will be blown up. 
Sound familiar? The twist is that "they" 
are not aliens. "They" are words, lb 
defeat the words, you have to type 
quickly and accurately. Each time you 
tjTie the letters correctly, that word dis- 
appears from the screen, only to be 
replaced by another one intent on 
destroying your ship. At the end of a 
round, the computer gives you a score 
and tells you your typing speed. 

It was a brilliant idea to make typing 
practice into a video game, so brilliant 
that Master Type is one of the top ten 
best-selling programs for the Apple 
today. You'll have fun. You'll learn .some- 
thing you want to learn. What better 
combination can you ask for? 

Lightning Software, for Apple. Also 
for Atari 800 







SQUISH 'EM B- 

If you like ladder games and you like 
maze games, you'll Wke Squish 'Em, 
because it is both. You've got to climb a 
48 story half-completed building to reach 
a suitcase, then parachute off the top. 
Bricks, hammers and TV sets are hurled 
at ym from above, and "Creepy Crea- 
tures" abound, to be jumped over or 
stomped. 

It's a very easy to learn, cute, addict- 
ing, and good-looking arcade-type game, 
similar to Crazy Climber. Once you really 
learn lo slide and squish, it feels like 
dancing. But don't expect this game to 
keep you occupied over the long winter. 

Sirius, for Commodore 64. Also for 
Atari 400/800 and VIC 




SHAMUS:CA5EII A- 

Fans oiShamus won't be disappointed 
—the pits and lairs are even more 
treacherous, the ladders more slippery 
and the Shadow every bit as deadly as 
you fight your way to the top of his mur- 



6t VlIXOGAMESPLAr^ 



derous underwater fortress. Mutant mol- 
lusks, fiendish fish and the Slavering 
Snakes make excellent targets for your 
plasmar detonators, and inventive sound 
effects enhance the sharp graphics and 
colors, 

But the thing that makes this such a 
winner is the finely-tuned blend of 
shoot- 'em-up and adventure, as you 
must explore every side corridor, pit and 
chamber for extra lives and the ultimate 
passage to the Shadow's lair. One 
improvement over the original is a pause 
feature that displays a map of your pro- 
gress. If it's fast-paced, high-caliber 
action/adventure you're after, this is the 
one. 

Synapse, for Atari 400/800 with 32K 




Apple Panic b 

At first, i nailed this one as a real 
loser. "You must destroy wandering 
apple monsters by digging holes in the 
brick floors for them to fail into, then 
bashing them through the holes with a 
pick-axe," Bor/'n^.' Seven hundred and 
nineteen bashed apples later, it was no 
longerapanic— it wasan obsession. 

It's a ladder game, one of the first, and 
the screens vary enough to keep the play 
unpredictable and interesting. Current 
and high scores are posted throughout, 
but you don't get any replacements for 
your original pick-axers no matter how 
high your score. Too bad. So what's so 
addictive? Apple Panic is a well-pro- 
grammed combination of action and 
strategy, infinitely more challenging 
than Donkey Kong. Though the game (as 
Space Panic) bombed in the arcades, it 
blasted to the top as a computer game for 
the Apple. The VIC version is a winner, 
too. A pause feature is included in the 
game. Especially good game if you er\joy 
beating monsters over the head. Coleco 
has a version of the game for ColecoVi- 
sion—Space Panic. 

Creative Software, for VIC-20 



c: 



'.(.<. U(i'j.y;..>j/ 



*l 







MASK OF THE Sun 

Adventure games have always been 
popular on the Apple. In the beginning, 
the games were text only Then picture.s 
were added. Lately, there's been a trend 
toward making the graphics more 
sophisticated. It's in this area— state of 
the art graphics— that the Mask of the 
Sun stands out. 

What the authors have done is to pack 
many, many pictures on the disk , The 
pictures are displayed fast enough to 
give the illusion of animation. Sound 
effects have also been added— (juite a 
rarity in adventure games. The game 
will understaiul complete English sen- 
tences as well as truncated ones. So you 
can type "Get into the jeep" or simply 
"into jeep." 

If you want to see the most sophisti- 
cated graphics to date in an adventure, 
jWas/f oftheSun is your game. 

Vltnisoft. (or Apple 



Frogger 

This may be the first home game that 
surpaH.ses the arcade original. In addition 
to well-defined frogs, logs, snakes and 
crocodiles, you are serenaded with 
jaunty music as you play— Yankee Doo- 
dle, Old MacDonald, etc. The game can 
be played with the joystick or keyboard 
and you can pause it or cut out the music 
if you'd like. 

Basically it's an excellent adaptation 
of Frogger, which we know and love. 



The only question is, with so many great 
games coming out, do we still care about 
getting this old frog to the other side of 
the road? 
Sierra On-line, for Commodore 64 





Synthesound 



Synilu'stnmd transforms your VIC into 
a synthesizer that takes advantage of the 
computer's music capabilities. The keys 
on the computer are used like piano 
keys, and the screen displays a piano 
keyboard to help you get oriented, Once 
you've got the feel of "tickling the ter- 
minal" instead ofthe ivories, you can 
customize your tones— bagpipes, trom- 
bones, even sci-fi sounds can be gener- 
ated with no programming know-how. 

The only drawback is that you can't 
compose a tune and SAVE it to replay 
later. But you do learn about envelopes, 
attack and decay rates, sustain and 
other element-s of computerized music. 
Synthesound is an excellent tool for bud- 
ding Beethovens and ruck 'n' ROM musi- 
cians. It might even be put to serious 
work in the studio or onstage, though its 
main value is educational. 

HES for VIC-20 




BOULDERS AND BOMBS B 

How did the astronaut get to the other 
side of the planet? He tunnels beneath 
the surface with a high-speed drill. But 
it's more than a horizontal Dig Dug: 
you've got a wacko-looking Alien Bird 



GAME OF THE MONTH 




ULTIMA II A+ 



Adventurers, grab your swords! Mon- 
dain, the villain of the original UUima, is 
dead, but his evil protege Minax lives. 
Your character can be human, dwarf, elf 
or hobbit and a Fighter, Thief, Cleric or 
Wizard. His {or her) status can be dis- 
played anytime, a game in progress can 
be easily SAVEd, and hit points, expe- 
rience and gold are constantly onscreen. 

The most inventive element of Vltima 
II is its "time doors," which enable you 
to travel to any of five eras— from the 
misty prehistoric to the far future— as 
well as to different continents and 
islands. After time- traveling, you can 
board a horse, ship or plane to move 



around the terrain faster. A rocket will 
even take you across the galaxy (via a 
second disk). Richly colored maps scroll 
all four ways; when you enter a town, 
its streets and buildings fill the screen. 
Playability is top-notch. 

The programmers neglected sound, 
nearly nonexistent, and used the freed- 
up memory to make room for more 
lands, towns and dungeons. All told, 
Vlt'ma II is an original, well-designed 
and executed adventure that offers many 
hours— more likely weeks and months! — 
of high-caliber entertainment. 

Sierra On-line, for Apple and Atari 
400/800 with 48K 



flying overhead dropping "Probe Birds," 
whose fungus-injecting probes shoot 
through the subsurface. If they don't hit 
you, they'll block your progess. So will 
"nuclear rods" raining from the sky 

Scoring is based on how long you take 
to cross to the escape tunnel on the far 
side. There are 99 screens. Richly col- 
ored graphics and detailed animation 
enhance the action. The alien sun 
actually travels across the sky, and when 
it sets, a moon orbits throughout the 
night. Best thing about this one-of-a- 
kind game is Ihat it accepts four joy- 
sticks, allowing your friends to control 
the alien Probe Birds! 

CBS. for Atari 400/800 




Prisoner 2 B+ 

Prisoner 2 is a subtle, difficult puzzle 
in which you have several goals: getting 
off the island where you're imprisoned; 
keeping secret a piece of information the 



guards are trying to extract from you; 
and above all maintaining your indivi- 
duality in the face of psychological tor- 
ture. 

lb heighten the pressure, the com- 
puter plays tricks on you. For example, 
keys don't work the way they should. 
You might type "N" only to see "T" 
appear on the screen. You'll be offered a 
clue, only to find it was the same clue 
you got last time. The computer will 
frustrate you in every way it can, even, 
at one point, threatening to erase the 
disk if you stop playing. If you think 
you're strong willed, if you think you are 
really tough, test yourself against Pris- 
oner 2. 

Edu- Ware, for Apple 



1^, l|?t<?MTOS? 



flff!* jS'",*!© 






E.T. PHONE HOME B 

Don't get confused with the VCS E. T. 
game. There are similarities in concept, 
but the design is sharper and execution 
more complex. The screen .scrolls in four 
directions as E.T. searches for the phone 
pieces he needs to call home. (Why he 
didn't just go to Radio Shack beats the 
heck out of us!) 

The suburban neighborhood, with its 
gingerbread houses and nearby forests 
are intricately portrayed, and the sounds 
really make E. T. fun to play. After 
you've collected all the pieces, E.T. 
actually speaks! (no voice attachment 
necessary) then you scram out to the 
forest, hoping to reach the mother ship's 
landing site before you run out of energy, 
If you make it, the saucer beams E.T. 
aboard in one of the most entertaining 
climaxes around. Nine difficulty levels 
should give you plenty of extraterrestrial 
pleasure and challenge. E.T.'s energy is 
indicated by a red line and four flowers. 
You can earn more flowers, and the 
game is over when you lose them all. For 
kids and adults. 

Atari, for Atari 400/800 



M Vimo GAMES puyoi 




ASTRO Chase a 

The Me^ardians have surrounded the 
galaxy with a force field. They've put 
their most potent weapons— the Mega 
Mines— into orbit around Earth. Sixteen 
of them are slowly closing in, each 
packed with enough explosives to blast 
the plant to bits. Your mission: Save 
Earth by vaporizing the mines. That's 
not easy, because you're constantly dis- 
tracted by squadnms of fighters, which 
track you down and nail you with their 
lasei"s. 

You have to get used to your ship's 
unique maneuvering mechanism. Any 
time you touch the fire button, yini go 
into auto-pilot. The ship continues in a 
straight line and lasers are fired by joy- 
stick movement like in Rohotron. You 
can position yourself between two 
planets and bounce back and forth, turn- 
ing your ship into a giant machine gun. 
All this takes place against a scrolling 
backdrop of rich blues and whites. These 
graphics and the extraordinary animated 
intermissions make Astro Chase a stand- 
out. 

First Stat, for Atari 800 




Protector II B 

Like Defender? Crazy about ChopHft- 
erPYou'll go bonkers over this. You've 
got to rescue 18 refugees in New Hope, 
all waving their hands as you fly over. 
Pick 'em up one at a time and deliver 
them to the far side of an intermittently 
erupting volcano. 

If you're not fast enough, an alien 



mother ship (why don't these games ever 
have /ai/ier ships?) snatches the refugees 
and drops them into the volcano. There 
are also enemy meteroids, chompers, 
lasers and other nasty weapons. Rescue 
all 18 refugees and the volcano erupts, 
devastating New Hope with lava. It's 
also fun to shoot all the refugees or drop 
them in the volcano youi^elf . 
Synapse, for Atari 400/800 witii 32K 




STARBOWL FOOTBALL B 

Cheerleaders are the only thing miss- 
ing in this otherwise authentic sports 
simulation. A one/two-player game 
offering "college" or "pro" skill levels, 
Starbowl scrolls horizontally in both 
directions to avoid cramping the entire 
field onto one screen. Both teams are 
represented by well-animated charac- 
ters, the crowd roars, and there's also a 
musical half-lime show. 

When you've got the ball, you coach 
by selecting {with joystick) the pass pat- 
terns and blocking assignments. Or an 
eligible receiver can be picked, in 
which case you directly control the 
passing. Defense is programmed the 
same way, and you can control the free 
safety's action. Nearly 200 offense/de- 
fense options are available. Punts, field 
goals. Interceptions— everything that 
happens in the Superbowl is possible in 
Starbowl. 

Play lasts an hour, and the teams 
switch goalposts for each quarter, 
Yards-for-first-down, time remaining, 
and score are constantly displayed on 
an overhead scoreboard. 

Starbowl 's only snag is its tricky 
method of passing and receiving. 
Unclear instructions can make mas- 
tering this task quite frustrating. The 
more you already know about the vari- 
ous patterns and plays, the more fun 
you'll get out of it— but even novices 
can learn a lot from Starbowl. 

Gamestar, for A tari 400/800 



%M 






^jPL/ 


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r» r> ij »*»> ; •- 



JUICE B+ 

Edison, your main man here, hops 
around a pink, slanted checkerboard- 
like affair, completing circuit boards 
with his tracks to score. But he's got to 
avoid creeps like Killerwatt and Nohm, 
who bounce along behind to zap him. 

This is made somewhat easier by two 
squares on opposite sides of the board. 
Hopping onto one of them immediately 
"teleports" you to the other, Killerwatt 
can often be duped by maneuvering back 
and forth In this manner. However, 
unlike the other nasties, he can also fol- 
low you onto the teleportation squares 
and deliver a real double-whammy to 
Edison . 

You can start play at any of six levels, 
each of which has three rounds. The 
board's structure differs with each 
round, and higher levels require fancier 
footwork to complete the circuit. An 
extra Edison is awarded for every 10,000 
points {you begin with five). Scoring is 
unique; you get bonuses for avoiding 
Killerwatt and touching base with Re- 
charge and Flash. Sound effects are ade- 
quate, and the animation is crisp and 
lively. Covering the board demands as 
much strategy as reflexes, and results in 
a game with value-packed longevity. 
Excellent game for Q'Bert fans. 

Tronix, for Atari 400/800 



And why didn't any of the com- 
puter games reviewed this 
month get Ds or Fs, you ask? 
Simple: the ones that would 
have scored miserably were so 
bad, we buried them in a toxic 
waste dump in East Noxious, 
New Jersey, before the art 
department got a chance to pho- 
tograph the screens. But the 
ones that survived are the best 
"boots" rnoney can buy this 
month. 



65 



"I v/as a 97 lb. video wimp . . . 
Until I subscribed to Video Games Playerl" 



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Once I was so ashamed of my pathetic 
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The Official 







The game that puts space games in 
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Zaxxon " is the one game that you must see 
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check with your local software dealer or 
send check or money order with $2.00 post- 
age/handling. California residents add 
6'/^% sales tax. Available on cassette or 
diskette. Suggested retail price $39.95. 

Available on Atari- 1 6K cassette, and 16'32K 
disk, Radio Shack- Color 32K cassette and 
disk. Apple- 48Kdisk. 



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